Mercury Precession of perehelium first correct calculation was made without relativity theory?

Question

Gerber's Calculation (1898)?

Answer 1

Not that I have heard of. Perhaps you are confusing two different issues here. Mercury's perihelion precession (and that of all planets) is due to more than just general relativity. The influence of other planets on the orbit keeps it from being truly elliptical, even in Newtonian gravity.

Prior to Einstein, astronomers had carefully accounted for all planetary effects on Mercury's perihelion precession. What was left was 43 arcseconds per century that could not be explained by the effects of the known planets. Some speculated that there might be unknown planets that would account for the anomalous precession. (Pluto, discovered much later, could not account for it.)

When Einstein formulated general relativity, he showed that planetary orbits would not be elliptical, even if no other planets were around. There would be a slight precession of planetary orbits just due to the effects of gravity in his theory. In the case of Mercury, this effect is 43 arcseconds per century -- precisely the "anomalous" effect astronomers had already found!

Answer 2

Maybe by assuming another planet, that does not exist. But the first correct calculation of the precession of Mercury's orbit without assuming an unknown other planet was with relativity.

Answer 3

Now that's superstition.