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Lunar distance software v. 4.1.1.0
From: Paul Hirose
Date: 2016 Sep 11, 20:28 -0700
From: Paul Hirose
Date: 2016 Sep 11, 20:28 -0700
Version 4.1.1.0 of my lunar distance program for Windows is available for download. In addition to solving the classic lunar distance observation, it reduces altitude observations, solves time sights, and functions as a geocentric almanac. http://home.earthlink.net/~s543t-24dst/lunar3/ The main improvement is the elimination of a bug in the manual input of star data. Last year, when I released a major update to my SofaJpl DLL, I changed the angle units in the Star constructor from radians to hours and degrees. The idea was to eliminate the annoying conversion of units in any code that calls SofaJpl. Unfortunately, those annoying conversions were already in my lunar distance program, and I simply forgot to remove them. The bug had no effect if you used the internal star catalog. The dip computation is now based on the refractive invariant, as recently described here. However, I don't use the approximate corrections for temperature and pressure. Since SofaJpl contains a precise model of refractive index as a function of temperature, pressure, and humidity, it's easier to use that, than write new code. The dip computation includes temperature and pressure, but uses a fixed temperature lapse rate of -.009 °C/meter. That duplicates the Almanac dip table almost perfectly at 1010 mb and 10 C.