How are ephemerides made?

N

neddacs

Member
Ive been working on a project for some time now that calculates planets and their positions.
But it seems Ive hit a block in the road when it comes to turning the information i have into the degrees.
Ie: if i have the right ascension and declination along with latitude, longitude and distance of a planet. How is something like that converted into degrees.
This is relevant to the question however as I'm also curious how ephemerides are even made?


So any answers, books, videos, etc. About how to such would be greatly appreciated.
 
Cary2

Cary2

Banned
I wonder if you are using the term, "degrees", in a idiosyncratic manner. Usually when someone wants to "convert to degrees", it means they have been using radians. Mathematicians can work with circles using degrees or radians. Many will use radians through most of the work and convert to degrees only at the very end of the process. I think I am confused because you are thinking of something else, but you have not described it properly.

In the computer age, ephemerides are created by calculating planetary positions for a certain time each day for each day of the year using a very swift, automated method. It is the same process as calculating a chart, but instead of graphically displaying a chart, a table is filled in with specified locations. Astrodienst (astro.com) can print out such tables for you.

I don't think you are referring to the radian-to-degree transformation, so I am confused by your question.
 
Cary2

Cary2

Banned
In case you are referring to radians:

One radian is equal to (180/PI) degrees.

To convert to degrees, mulitply by (180/(PI radians)).
 
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