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Can I backtrack a bit, please?

In reply to a posting from Fred Hebard, I wrote earlier-
>Other navigational planets will also be near the plane of the ecliptic:
>Venus can't get >more than 8 deg away, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn closer
>still. So it can be assumed that >these bodies, like the Sun and Regulus,
>are always suitable candidates for a lunar >distance, as long as the lunar
>distance exceeds 20 deg or so.

I have had second thoughts about that, particularly as it applies to Venus.
In the worst case, Venus could be 8 deg one side of the ecliptic, and the
Moon could be 5 deg the other side. So as the Moon passes Venus in the sky,
it's possible for them to be 13 deg apart. In that case, a minimum lunar
distance of 20 deg, as I suggested, wouldn't really be enough to ensure
that the Moon and Venus were closing at anywhere near the full possible
rate. It would need a minimum lunar distance of 40 deg, instead.

George

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