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From: Craig.Everhart%CMU-CS-A@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Earth - Moon simulator
Message-ID: <13630@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 14-Nov-83 13:44:00 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.13630
Posted: Mon Nov 14 13:44:00 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 17-Nov-83 01:31:35 EST
Lines: 16

I've got a program that does a crude job of what you ask for--its use is to
figure out the phase and orientation of the moon (how it's tilted if you were
to face toward it) so it can draw a picture of it on your terminal as you
log out.  My astronomy is much simplified, but it seems to simulate reality
pretty well.  Let me know if you can retrieve a copy and I'll pin down where
it is, or I'll mail you a copy of the program if you can't do it.

Before it can figure out what orientation the moon will seem to be at, it
goes through a stage where it figures the azimuth and elevation of the moon's
center.  It just does it for a compiled-in latitude and it assumes that local
time is solar time, but it should be easy to get it to do what you want.

Any astronomical improvements (say, the prediction of eclipses) would be
most welcome.

		Craig Everhart