Astronomy with your Personal Computer

Peter Duffett-Smith (Author)

9780521389952, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 June 1990

272 pages
24.3 x 19.5 x 2.4 cm, 0.49 kg

"...an example of how wonderful a tool a computer and a few programs can be. With the subroutines in this book, the amateur astronomer can have more time to concentrate on the heavens and leave the earthly work of astronomical computations to the computer....a good sourcebook for those amateur astronomers who are not afraid of some simple programming or for getting someone who is familiar with programming interested in astronomy. It could be useful to those who want more accuracy in their space games." William H. MacIntosh, Computing Reviews

The first edition of this very successful book was one winner of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 'Astronomy Book of the Year' awards in 1986. There are a further seven subroutines in the new edition which can be linked in any combination with the existing twenty-six. Written in a portable version of BASIC, it enables the amateur astronomer to make calculations using a personal computer. The routines are not specific to any make of machine and are user friendly in that they require only a broad understanding of any particular problem. Since the programs themselves take care of details, they can be used for example to calculate the time of rising of any of the planets in any part of the world at any time in the future or past, or they may be used to find the circumstances of the next solar eclipse visible from a particular place. In fact, almost every problem likely to be encountered by the amateur astronomer can be solved by a suitable combination of the routines given in the book.

Preface
Using your personal computer for astronomy
Default value input routine
'Y' or 'N' input routine MINSEC converts between decimal hours/degrees and min/sec form
JULDAY calendar date to Julian day number since 1900 Jan. 0.5
CALDAY Julian day number since 1900 Jan. 0.5 to calendar date
TIME converts between local civil and sidereal times
EQHOR converts between equatorial and horizon coordinates
HRANG converts between right ascension and hour-angle
OBLIQ calculates the value of the obliquity of the ecliptic
NUTAT finds corrections for nutation in longitude and obliquity
EQECL converts between equatorial and ecliptic coordinates
EQGAL converts between equatorial and galactic coordinates
GENCON converts between any of the coordinate systems
PRCESS1 approximate precession of equatorial coordinates
PRCESS2 rigorous precession of equatorial coordinates
PARALLX converts between geocentric and apparent position
REFRACT calculates the effect of atmospheric refraction
RISET finds the circumstances of rising and setting
ANOMALY solves Kepler's equation for elliptical motion
SUN finds the ecliptic coordinates of the Sun
SUNRS finds the circumstances of sunrise and sunset
PELMENT returns the orbital elements of the major planets
PLANS finds the position of a planet
MOON finds the position and parallax of the Moon
MOONRS finds the circumstances of moonrise and moonset
MOONNF finds the times of new and full moon
ECLIPSE finds the circumstances of lunar and solar eclipses
Displays an eclipse in graphical form
ELOSC finds positions from osculating elliptical elements
RELEM converts ecliptic orbital elements from one epoch to another
PCOMET finds the position of a comet from parabolic elements
PFIT finds parabolic elements from observations
EFIT finds elliptical elements from observations
List of variables
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Popular astronomy & space [WNX], Computer science [UY]