The Problem With Multiple Measurements

Every time you measured an object, the answer came out different. Tycho Brahe and Johann Kepler both seemed to understand that there had to be some way of rounding off the difference between multiple measurements. But neither of them were forthcoming about how they managed it. It wasn't until Galileo published in 1632 that someone took a systemic swing at the problem. Fast forward to Carl Friedrich Gauss' discovery of Ceres by Giuseppe Piazzi who thought it was a planet. He started trying to map its orbit but before he could get necessary data, Ceres disappeared behind the sun.