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← HistoryWhich limitation affected medieval Islamic astronomical observations using open-sighting alidades?
A)Atmospheric refraction causing angular errors✓
B)Metal fatigue in alidade support structures
C)Clockwork mechanisms limiting tracking duration
D)Inaccurate conversion from lunar to solar calendars
💡 Explanation
When observing stars with alidades, atmospheric refraction causes the apparent position of stars to be higher than their true position due to bending of light. Therefore atmospheric refraction errors are present, rather than structural fatigue, clockwork errors or calendar inaccuracies which are independent astronomical observation processes.
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