Practical Ephemeris Calculations
Oliver Montenbruck | 1900-01-01 00:00:00 | Springer-Verlag | 146 | Science
The calculation of exact positions of stars, the Sun and the celestial bodies of the solar system is a prerequisite of successful practical work in astronomy. This text gives the necessary background of spherical astronomy and celestial mechanics from the practitioner's point of view, and collates all the formulae and numerical values needed to calculate precise ephemerides. The clear structure of the book allows easy use of the material in computer programs. Students, lecturers and amateurs in astronomy will find the book an invaluable reference in their daily work, lectures or lab courses.
Reviews
One of the better astronomical calculation books. It's a lot like Jean Meeus' books: a series of recipes for performing practical calculations, not much theory or background. It is assumed you already know the necessary astronomy to know more or less what you want to do. Montenbruck goes into a couple of areas which Meeus does not, or which Meeus treats incompletely:
- numerical integration, which is the modern method used by the astronomical almanacs to compute their accurate ephemerides. His treatment is very basic, but is a great jumping-off point for further study.
- physical ephemerides, which Meeus develops completely only for the Sun, Mars and the Moon, and partially for Jupiter.
That being said, Meeus' books are better for orbital positions of the Moon and planets, and satellites. Montenbruck gives only approximate planetary orbits, but gives very complete math for handling them, and he does not go into planetary satellites at all. Neither author's treatment of physical ephemerides gives planetographic coordinates (vs planetocentric), which are needed if you're trying to duplicate almanac data.
Reviews
Oliver Montenbruck is a great author. But that's not the main reason I bought this book.
I am really interested in planetary astronomy. And I do care very much about the motion of minor bodies orbiting the Sun. And sure, I care about the positions of the planets as well. This book is indeed useful for that. And, yes, you can put the equations on your computer or calculator or PDA. And there's an appendix that gives mean orbital elements for Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars as well as osculating orbital elements for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto for the years 1941 through 2049. That's useful too!
But I confess, the real reason I got this book, and the real use I put it to is simple. I can get really confused about how to go between geocentric ecliptic, geocentric equatorial, heliocentric, horizontal, and topocentric coordinates. And this book tells me how to transform my way into the one I want. It also explains the different definitions of time: TAI, ET, TDT, TDB, UT, UTC, AST, MST, GMST, LMST, GAST, LAST, and Julian Date.
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