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I've developed a celestial navigation and star chart product using Novas
and the JPL DE405 database for the PocketPC (www.nomadelectronics.com)
which you may find of interest.  As a neophyte, I found the limited
Novas documentation pretty opaque, but a book which helped to make sense
of it all was "Fundamental Ephemeris Computations For Use with JPL
Data", Paul J. Heafner, William Bell, Inc. 1999.

--------------------------
Jay Alan Borseth            jaybo@nomadelectronics.com
2419 East Helen Street      http://www.nomadelectronics.com
Seattle, WA  98112         (206) 329-6327



-----Original Message-----
From: Navigation Mailing List
[mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM] On Behalf Of Hal Mueller
Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2002 11:44 PM
To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
Subject: Re: almanac software


At 10:57 PM -0800 3/7/02, Cliff Sojourner wrote:
>ok, I have to ask:  is there any source code for nautical almanac
>software available?  I have searched high and low in marine, air,
>navigation, and astronomy areas, but all I can find are some commercial

>programs, and a few people's pet projects.  what are those programs
>based on?  I suppose as a last resort I could ask one of the private
>parties to share.

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/software/novas/novas_c/novasc_info.html is the
source code for the US Naval Observatory's positional astronomy package.
It's a good start toward almanac software, although you'll have to
supply your own code for planetary positions, and it's really designed
for astronomers and not navigators.  C and Fortran versions available.

It might also be worth taking a crack at getting the source for the
USNO's "MICA" (Mac/Win almanac).  Below is an excerpt from the README
(which is 5 years old).  I haven't kept up with the status of the
program.

As for testing, I used every published example I could get my hands on,
including single almanac pages in navigation textbooks, as well as spot
checks through all the nautical almanacs I could locate.  I also
generated my own examples with MICA.  Jean Meeus's book "Astronomical
Algorithms" was what I used for first-round test cases (as well as for
algorithms).

>MICA 1.5 is a product of the Astronomical Applications Department of
>the U.S. Naval Observatory.  It is available for both DOS (PC) and
>MacOS systems.  MICA 1.5 was published for the Naval Observatory by:
>
>     Willmann-Bell, Inc.
>     P.O. Box 35025
>     Richmond, VA  23235  USA
>     (804) 320-7016 (voice)
>     (804) 272-5920 (fax)
>     http://www.willbell.com
>
>Please direct all orders and questions about orders to the publisher.
>
>
>(5)  TECHNICAL SUPPORT
>
>The MICA developers welcome your comments, criticisms, suggestions, and

>problem reports.  However, we are able to provide only very limited
>technical support services, and these will be provided through the
>regular mail.  We regret that we can not respond to any telephone
>inquiries or correspondence sent by e-mail or FAX.
>
>Please send all technical correspondence concerning MICA to:
>
>     U. S. Naval Observatory
>     Code: AA/MICA
>     3450 Massachusetts Ave., NW
>     Washington, DC  20392-5420 USA
>
>When writing to us, please be sure to indicate the version of MICA
>being used and information concerning your computer system
>configuration (CPU type, RAM, hard disk, etc.) if relevant.
>
>
>(6)  WORLD WIDE WEB SITE
>
>The Astronomical Applications Department of the U.S. Naval Observatory
>maintains a Web site providing a wide variety of astronomical data,
>answers to frequently asked questions, and up-to-date information on
>its publications and software products. Point your browser to
>http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA.

----
Hal Mueller                hal@mobilegeographics.com
Mobile Geographics LLC     http://www.mobilegeographics.com/
Seattle, Washington        (206) 297-9575
MapTap public test now underway!
http://www.mobilegeographics.com/maptap/

   

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