Moon table

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A lunar table or lunar table is a display method that makes as much previously calculated or measured lunar data as possible with regard to fixed stars , planets , earth and sun accessible in tabular form.

Calculations

Because of the gravitational pull of the earth, sun, and other planets, the lunar orbit is not an exact ellipse . In relation to the sun, it shows an undulating course. The mathematical calculation of the moon's orbit is also complicated by the fact that its axis a precession shows with a period of about 19 years and their nodal line in declining movement in 18.61 years describes a round, while the line of apsides in 8.85 years rechtläufig one revolution .

With the help of the moon tables, further events were calculated and derived.

Predictions of the lunar and solar eclipses

The lunar tables were already used in Babylonia to calculate lunar and solar eclipses .

Easter calculation

In 1700 the Protestants accepted the Gregorian calendar improvement, but not the Gregorian Easter calculation , but determined the Easter limit astronomically with the help of the Rudolfine moon tables written by Kepler .

Longitude calculation

In the period from 1763 to 1925, the lunar distances were tabulated in the astronomical and nautical yearbooks from the lunar tables so that the geographical longitude could be calculated.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Peter Andreas Hansen: Presentation of the theoretical calculation of the disturbances used in the moon tables, 1864 Google books
  2. FX Kugler: For the explanation of the Babylonian moon tables: I. Lunar and solar eclipses, magazine for Assyriology and related areas ›Vol. 15 (1900) ULB Saxony-Anhalt
  3. ^ Josef Bach: The calculation of Easter in old and new times ; P. 64
  4. ^ Dieter B. Herrmann : History of Astronomy ; VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften; Berlin 1975