HIPPARCHUS

For the eccentric model, Hipparchus found for the ratio between the radius of the eccenter and the distance between the center of the eccenter and the center of the ecliptic (i.e., the observer on Earth): 3144 : 327+2/3 ;

and for the epicycle model, the ratio between the radius of the deferent and the epicycle: 3122+1/2 : 247+1/2 .
The somewhat weird numbers are due to the cumbersome unit he used in his chord table. The results are distinctly different. This is partly due to some sloppy rounding and calculation errors, for which Ptolemy criticised him (he himself made rounding errors too). Anyway, Hipparchus found inconsistent results; he later used the ratio of the epicycle model (3122+1/2 : 247+1/2), which is too small (60 : 4;45 hexadecimal): Ptolemy established a ratio of 60 : 5+1/4.

Apparent motion of the Sun

Before Hipparchus, Meton, Euktemon, and their pupils at Athens had made a solstice observation (i.e., timed the moment of the summer solstice) on June 27, 432 BC (proleptic Julian calendar). Aristarchus is said to have done so in 280 BC, and Hipparchus also had an observation by Archimedes. Hipparchus himself observed the summer solstice in 135 BC, but he found observations of the moment of equinox more accurate, and he made many during his lifetime. Ptolemy gives an extensive discussion of Hipparchus' work on the length of the year in the Almagest III.1, and quotes many observations that Hipparchus made or used, spanning 162 BC to 128 BC.

Ptolemy quotes an equinox timing by Hipparchus (at 24 March 146 BC at dawn) that differs from the observation made on that day in Alexandria (at 5h after sunrise): Hipparchus may have visited Alexandria but he did not make his equinox observations there; presumably he was on Rhodes (at the same geographical longitude). He may have used his own armillary sphere or an equatorial ring for these observations. Hipparchus (and Ptolemy) knew that observations with these instruments are sensitive to a precise alignment with the equator. The real problem however is that atmospheric refraction lifts the Sun significantly above the horizon: so its apparent declination is too high, which changes the observed time when the Sun crosses the equator. Worse, the refraction decreases as the Sun rises, so it may appear to move in the wrong direction with respect to the equator in the course of the day - as Ptolemy mentions; however, Ptolemy and Hipparchus apparently did not realize that refraction is the cause.