NAVIGATIONAL ALGORITHMS

Astronoma de Posicin

Andrs Ruiz
San Sebastin Donostia
43 19N 002W
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Date UT1
Aries

Mean GHA

Nutation

GHA

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 Date UT1
Sun

VSOP87
planet Moon Sun Geocentric
ephemerides Coordinates

Corrections
to FK5

JPL DE405 solar

system ephemeris
planetary and lunar
ApparentPlace
ephemerides
IERS coordinate
systems

GHA
Dec

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 Date UT1
star
FK5
Mean Place
(center = Barycenter of Proper motion
the Solar system)
J2000.0 Positions

Precession

Hipparcos
Nutation

annual Aberration

annual Parallax

Gravitational
deflection of light

Apparent Place
(center = Barycenter of
The Earth)

GHA
Dec

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 Date UT1
Planet

VSOP87
planet Moon Sun Heliocentric
ephemerides Coordinates

Geocentric
Coordinates

JPL DE405 solar

system ephemeris
planetary and lunar
Aberration
ephemerides
IERS coordinate
systems

Corrections
to FK5

Nutation

GHA
Dec

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 Date UT1
Moon

Mean longitude

Mean elongation

Mean anomaly of the

Sun

Mean anomaly

Mean distance of the

moon from its
ascending node

ELP2000
Longitude
Moon periodic terms Latitude
Distance earth-moon

Apparent longitude

GHA
Dec

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 1
Indice

Da juliano / Julian day .............................................................................................................................. 2

Angulo Horario en Greenwich de Aries. Greenwich Hour Angle of Aries ......................................... 3

El Sol, coordenadas aproximadas. The Sun, approximate coordinates.................................. 4

Compact Data for Navigation and Astronomy ........................................................................................ 5

Sun................................................................................................................................................... 5
Stars ................................................................................................................................................ 5
Moon................................................................................................................................................ 6
Planets ............................................................................................................................................ 6

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 2

Da juliano / Julian day

The number of each day, as reckoned consecutively since the beginning of the present
Julian period on January 1, 4713 BC. It is used primarily by astronomers to avoid confusion
due to the use of different calendars at different times and places. The Julian day begins
at noon, 12 hours later than the corresponding civil day. The day beginning at noon January
1, 1968, was Julian day 2,439,857.

Julian calendar. A revision of the ancient calendar of the city of Rome, instituted in the
Roman Empire by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C,, which reached its final form in about 8 A.D. It
consisted of years of 365 days, with an intercalary day every fourth year. The current
Gregorian calendar is the same as the Julian calendar except that October 5, 1582, of the
Julian calendar became October 15, 1582 of the Gregorian calendar and of the centurial
years, only those divisible by 400 are leap years.
Bibliography: Astronomical Algorithms by Jean Meeus. 2 Ed edition (December 1998).
ISBN: 0943396638

Variables
JD the Julian day
D Day, (current Gregorian calendar)
M Month
Y year
Hour GMT/UT time
Min Minutes
Sec Seconds
floor(x) function that returns a floating-point value representing the largest integer that is
less than or equal to x.
The floor of 2.8 is 2.0 The floor of -2.8 is -3.0

Algorithm
D = D + (hour+min/60.0+sec/3600.0)/24.0;
if( int(M) == 1 || int(M) == 2 ) {
Y = Y-1.0;
M = M+12.0;
}
A = floor(Y/100.0);
B = 2.0-A+floor(A/4.0);
if( calendar == 'Julian' ) B = 0.0;
JD = floor(365.25*(Y+4716.0)) + floor(30.6001*(M+1.0)) +D+B-1524.5;

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 3

Angulo Horario en Greenwich de Aries.

Greenwich Hour Angle of Aries

Sidereal Time At Greenwich. Sidereal time is defined by the daily rotation of the earth with
respect to the vernal equinox of the first point of Aries. Sidereal time is numerically measured by
the hour angle of the equinox, which represents the position of the equinox in the daily rotation.
The period of one rotation of the equinox in hour angle, between two successive upper meridian
transits, is a sidereal day. It is divided into 24 sidereal hours, reckoned at upper transit which is
known as sidereal noon. The true equinox is at the intersection of the true celestia equator of
date with the ecliptic of date; the time measured by its daily otation is apparent sidereal time. The
position of the equinox is affected by the nutation of the axis of rotation of the earth, and the
nutation consequently introduces irregular periodic inequities into the apparent sidereal time and
the length of the sidereal day. The time measured by the motion of the mean equinox of date,
affected only by the secular inequalities due to the precession of the axis, is mean sidereal time.
The maximum difference between apparent mean sidereal times is only a little over a second
and its greatest daily change is a little more than a hundredth of a second. Because of its
variable rate, apparent sidereal time is used by astronomers only as a measure of epoch; it is not
used for time interval. Mean sidereal time is deduced from apparent sidereal time by applying the
equation of equinoxes.
Accuracy: GHA Aries less than 0.02'
Bibliography:
Astronomical Algorithms by Jean Meeus. 2 Ed edition (December 1998). ISBN: 0943396638

Variables
JD the Julian date
theta0 Mean GHA of Aries
ang_0_360(x) Function to put an angle into the limits of: 0 < x < 360
deltaPsi Nutation in longitude
epsilon True obliquity of the ecliptic

Algorithm
T = (JD - 2451545.0 ) / 36525.0;
theta0 = 280.46061837 + 360.98564736629*(JD-2451545.0) +
0.000387933*T*T - T*T*T/38710000.0;
theta0 = ang_0_360(theta0);
GHA = theta0 + deltaPsi*COS( epsilon );
The term deltaPsi*COS( epsilon ), take account of Nutation, obliquity of the ecliptic. And
can be ignored if the accuracy of 0.02' is not necessary
GHA = ang_0_360( GHA );

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 4

El Sol, coordenadas aproximadas.

The Sun, approximate coordinates

Sun's angular coordinates to an accuracy of about 1 arcminute within two centuries of

2000.
RA. Right ascension
Dec. Declination

Algorithm
// D: the number of days and fraction (+ or -) from the epoch referred to as J2000.0,
// which is 2000 January 1.5, Julian date 2451545.0:
// JD: the Julian date
day = day + (hour+min/60.0+sec/3600.0)/24.0;
JD = JulianDate( day, month, year );
D = JD-2451545.0;
// all the constants (therefore g, q, and L) are in degrees.
g = 357.529+0.98560028*D;
q = 280.459+0.98564736*D;
// L: approximation to the Sun's geocentric apparent ecliptic longitude (adjusted for
aberration).
L = q+1.915*SIN( g )+ 0.020* SIN( 2.0*g );
// Reduce g, q, and L to the range 0 to 360
g = ang_0_360( g );
q = ang_0_360( q );
L = ang_0_360( L );
// Sun's ecliptic latitude, b, can be approximated by
b = 0.0;
// The distance of the Sun from the Earth, R, in astronomical units (AU)
R = 1.00014-0.01671*COS( g )-0.00014*COS( 2.0*g );
// mean obliquity of the ecliptic, in degrees:
e = 23.439-0.00000036*D;
// right ascension in degrees
// RA is always in the same quadrant as L.
// RA = ATAN( COS( e )*SIN( L )/COS( L ) );
// the proper quadrant will be obtained.
RA = ATAN2( COS( e )*SIN( L ), COS( L ) );
// right ascension in hours
RA = RA/15.0;
// Reduced to the range 0h to 24h
RA = time_0_24( RA );
// declination
Dec = ASIN( SIN( e )*SIN( L ) );

// The Equation of Time, apparent solar time minus mean solar time
// Eqt and RA are in hours and q is in degrees.
EqT = q/15.0 - RA;
// angular semidiameter of the Sun in degrees
SD = 0.2666/R;

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 5

Compact Data for Navigation and Astronomy

Ephemerides
The almanac data is calculated from GMT/UT:
GHA
DEC
HP
Semi-diameter

Variables
GMT Greenwich Mean Time. Universal Time (UT).
Lat or B Latitude (north = positive, south = negative)
Long or L Longitude (east = positive, west = negative).
GHA Greenwich Hour Angle = GHA(Aries) + SHA in degrees E from 0 to 360.
SHA Sidereal Hour Angle = 360 - Right Ascension.
DEC Declination in degrees north (positive) and south (negative).
LHA Local Hour Angle = GHA + Longitude in degrees E from 0 to360.
LHA = GHAAries + SHA +/- observer's longitude
HP Horizontal Parallax of Sun, Moon, Venus or Mars.
PA Parallax in Altitude of Sun, Moon, Venus or Mars.
PA = HP * cos H
S Semi-diameter of the Sun or Moon. (Add lower limb and subtract upper limb).

Sun
The calculations in the method using the coefficients are:
Time variable x = (d + GMT / 24 ) / 32.
d is the day in the month and GMT the universal time in hours.

Using x, (GHA - GMT) in hours and DEC in degrees are derived from this expression:
a0 + (a1 * x) + (a2 * x2) + (a3 * x3) + (a4 * x4)
This can be rewritten as:
( ( (a4 * x + a3) * x + a2) * x + a1) * x + a0
You can convert the GHA in hours to degrees by adding GMT and multiplying the result by 15 to
convert from hours to degrees.

The semi-diameter is calculated using the expression

S = a0 + (a1 * x)

Stars
The algorithms are similar to the Sun:
Calculate time variable L
L = 0.9856474 * ( D + d + GMT / 24)
D = Number of days from 0:0:0 on 1/1/91 or 1/1/96. d is the day of the month.

For information GHA(Aries) can be derived from 98.9513 + L + (15 * GMT in decimal hours)
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 6

The expressions for the GHA and DEC are:

GHA = a0 + (a1 * L) + (a2 * sin L) + (a3 * cos L) + (15 * GMT in decimal hours)
DEC = a0 + (a1 * L) + (a2 * sin L) + (a3 * cos L)

No semi-diameter is required for stars.

Moon
The method uses a complex set of algorithms to derive the GHA, DEC and HP.

Planets
The calculations using the coefficients are the same as for the Sun:
Time variable x = (d + GMT / 24) / 32.
d is the day in the month and GMT the universal time in hours.

(GHA - GMT) in hours and DEC in degrees are derived from this expression:
a0 + (a1 * x) + (a2 * x2) + (a3 * x3) + (a4 * x4)

The horizontal parallax is calculated using the expression

HP = a0 + (a1 * x)

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