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On 2/15/2023 5:45 PM, Modris Fersters wrote:
"When I want to get maximum accuracy from cleared lunars I use Chauvenete’s method from the middle of 19. century (method was rarely practiced because it was not actual any more at the time it was published). This method is specific, but it includes all possible corrections (thermometer, barometer, SD compression, oblateness of the earth)."

A Windows implementation of the William Chauvenet lunar distance method can be downloaded from my site. The page also includes links to scans of the 19th century documents.
http://sofajpl.com/chau_approx/index.html

The program does NOT include a solar system ephemeris or star catalog. The user must supply 1) geocentric distances between the bodies as in the old almanacs, or 2) geocentric apparent coordinates of both bodies.

My original idea was that the program would evaluate the Chauvenet tables, and I actually put a few tables into machine readable form. But to save time I abandoned that plan. Instead, the program directly evaluates the formulas. Early editions of Chauvenet had a typo in a formula, but it's corrected in the edition I used.

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Paul Hirose
sofajpl.com