ABSTRACT
The aberration is an effect due to the finite velocity of light and to the motions of the observer with respect to the celestial sources. Following the traditional treatment, we shall call stellar aberration that part of the displacement that depends on the motion of the observer around the Sun, namely, the annual revolution and the diurnal rotation. Planetary aberration is the sum of the stellar aberration and the part of displacement due to the light time from the planet, comet or asteroid to the observer. This chapter discusses the aberration of light, mostly limited to first order in the quantity V/c, in the frame of the Newtonian dynamics. James Bradley noticed the close numerical coincidence with the solar aberration constant. Thus, he suspected that the cause was the same, namely, the finite velocity of light.
