While on the subject of the accuracy/reliability of various algorithms and web
pages showing various astronomical data, we had a full moon / total lunar
eclipse in the northern hemisphere. And not just any full moon, but a Super
Blood Werewolf Zombie Apocalypse full moon (or some such drivel spouted by all
the TV stations).
Anyway, I wanted to know when the eclipse was at it's maximum. Most web sites
gave a time here as 23:12, some differed by several minutes. None gave the
time to the second. That just won't do for a moon worshiping time-nut, will
it? So, I tricked up a version of Lady Heather to do a screen dump when the
difference of the sun and moon azimuth and elevation were at a (180 degree)
minimum. Looks like it happened at 23:12:04
Heather's sun position code (based on Grena's algorithm 5) is VERY accurate
(and quite simple). The moon position code is pretty good... a better version
would require several thousand lines of code evaluating a zillion polynomials
with hundreds of terms.
Anyway,, attached is a copy of the screen dump. Note the difference in the
sun/moon az/el values and also the calculated moon phase.
Does anybody know of a reliable source of the true time of the lunar eclipse
down to the second (or better)?
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