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Re: 18 june 2013 lunar distance
From: Paul Hirose
Date: 2013 Jul 01, 11:53 -0700
From: Paul Hirose
Date: 2013 Jul 01, 11:53 -0700
I wrote: >>For 18 June 2013 at 3:30:00UT1, geocentric lunar distance to Altair: > > USNO MICA 2.0 > 106 34 28.48 (= 106 34.4747), calculated from geocentric apparent places > with respect to true equator and equinox at TT = 03:31:07.1. > > 12 49 1.478 -8 12 48.78 Moon > 19 51 28.291 +8 54 23.41 Altair I should have explained that a flaw in MICA 2.0 makes it impossible to realize the full accuracy of the program if one uses UT1 to compute Moon coordinates. At 03:30 UT1 MICA says: 12 49 1.557 -8 12 49.17 With that position the separation angle from Altair is 106 34 27.36 (= 106 34.4561), 1.1″ less than from the value quoted above. The reason is that MICA thinks delta T is 69.289, but it's really 67.118. There is no provision for manual input. Thus for best accuracy one must convert 03:30:00 UT1 to 03:31:07.1 TT and select the TT scale in MICA. I think MICA 2.0 uses the JPL DE405 ephemeris. I don't have a DE405 file on hand, but DE406 is the same integration in a more compact storage format. In this case there's practically no difference between DE406 and the recent DE422 ephemeris. RA is .001 s different, declination identical at 0.01″ precision. --