Halley's method for calculating the Earth-Sun distance (Q1770086)

In 1717 E. Halley published a paper on a method for calculating the Earth-Sun distance: The method gives excellent results and a good insight in the processes involved but the paper was in Latin and not wide-spread. In 1761 J. Ferguson provided its translation with comments but the translation was not exact and the comments did not provide an accurate picture. Remaining essentially unknown, the Halley's method was not used by later astronomers what was a ``great omission''. The author offers a critical revision of Halley's original paper.