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Re: AstronomicalData - solar ecliptic longitude

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg106597] Re: AstronomicalData - solar ecliptic longitude
• From: magma <maderri2 at gmail.com>
• Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 07:30:37 -0500 (EST)
• References: <his6t3$l4q$1@smc.vnet.net>

On Jan 16, 12:11 pm, Canopus56 <canopu... at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Mathematica 7 contains a new  powerful astronomical feature - Astronomi=
calData.  It appears to intended to partially supercede the outdated 1997=
 _Scientific Astronomer_ package.  Is there a way by hour to tease out th=
e current ecliptic longitude of the Sun from this function?
> Thanks, Kurt      

Directly from AstronomicalData does not seem so.
You can get the RA and Decl of the Sun and then convert it to ecliptic
long, if you know the formula.

For example:

AstronomicalData["Sun", {"RightAscension", {2010, 3, 21}}]

AstronomicalData["Sun", {"Declination", {2010, 3, 21}}]

give you the RA and Decl of the Sun next 21st March. As we can see we
are very close to the first point of Aries

>From this info you can get the ecliptic lat/long using the formulas
described in the wikipedia page below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecliptic_coordinate_system

hth

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  • Re: Re: AstronomicalData - solar ecliptic longitude
    • From: Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com>