NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Calculating nutation with a spreadsheet?
From: Brian Villmoare
Date: 2025 Jun 25, 21:23 -0700
From: Brian Villmoare
Date: 2025 Jun 25, 21:23 -0700
In trying to make a spreadsheet-friendly star position predictor, I seem to do OK with most factors, including precession, but am somewhat snagged by nutation. I get that it follows a sine/cosine curve pattern. But the complexity seems daunting!
The 'official' IAU 2000A is 1365 terms, I believe. How important is it to use all of these terms? Can you get away with the most influential 15 or 20? How much accuracy will I lose?
