Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Astronomy on the Personal Computer

  • Textbook
  • © 1994

Overview

Authors:
  1. Oliver Montenbruck

    1. DLR-GSOC, Weßling, Germany

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Thomas Pfleger

    1. Hennef, Germany

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 74.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XIII
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Oliver Montenbruck, Thomas Pfleger
    Pages 1-6

  3. Coordinate Systems

    • Oliver Montenbruck, Thomas Pfleger
    Pages 7-33

  4. Calculation of Rising and Setting Times

    • Oliver Montenbruck, Thomas Pfleger
    Pages 35-58

  5. Cometary Orbits

    • Oliver Montenbruck, Thomas Pfleger
    Pages 59-82

  6. Special Perturbations

    • Oliver Montenbruck, Thomas Pfleger
    Pages 83-106

  7. Planetary Orbits

    • Oliver Montenbruck, Thomas Pfleger
    Pages 107-130

  8. Physical Ephemerides of the Planets

    • Oliver Montenbruck, Thomas Pfleger
    Pages 131-152

  9. The Orbit of the Moon

    • Oliver Montenbruck, Thomas Pfleger
    Pages 153-176

  10. Solar Eclipses

    • Oliver Montenbruck, Thomas Pfleger
    Pages 177-203

  11. Stellar Occultations

    • Oliver Montenbruck, Thomas Pfleger
    Pages 205-227

  12. Orbit Determination

    • Oliver Montenbruck, Thomas Pfleger
    Pages 229-252

  13. Astrometry

    • Oliver Montenbruck, Thomas Pfleger
    Pages 253-266

  14. Back Matter

    Pages 267-313
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

It is said that a typical astronomer of the 19th century spent seven hours working at a desk for every hour spent at the telescope. That 's how long the routine analysis of data took with pencil, paper, and logarithmic tables. Thus when Wilhelm Olbers discovered the minor planet Vesta in 1807 and gathered the necessary observations, his friend Gauss needed almost 10 hours to hand­ calculate its orbit. That achievement astonished many less gifted astronomers of the time, who might have labored days to work out the orbit of a newfound comet. How different things are today! Gauss's method of orbit determination, presented in Chap. 11 of this book, runs to completion on a horne computer in a few seconds at most. The machine will issue its accurate results in less time than it takes to key in the observations. In this book, alandmark in the youthfulliterature of astronomical com­ puter algorithms, Oliver Montenbruck and Thomas Pfleger cover many topics of keen interest to the practical ob server. For me its most remarkable feature is the library of interrelated program modules, aIl elegantly written in PAS­ CAL. Anyone who has tried to create such modules in interpreted BASIC soon runs into trouble: too few letters for variable names, not enough signifi­ cant digits, and so on. These PASCAL routines are invoked one after another in coordinate transformations and calendar conversions.

Authors and Affiliations

  • DLR-GSOC, Weßling, Germany

    Oliver Montenbruck

  • Hennef, Germany

    Thomas Pfleger

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation