Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!ima!think!barmar
From: barmar@think.COM (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Need to predict phase of moon.
Message-ID: <34976@think.UUCP>
Date: 30 Dec 88 18:19:25 GMT
References: <101150002@hpcvlx.HP.COM>
Sender: news@think.UUCP
Reply-To: barmar@kulla.think.com.UUCP (Barry Margolin)
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
Lines: 16


All you need to know is the time of a recent new moon and the period
of the moon phase cycle.  The program we use here has the base new
moon time as Oct 21, 1987 23:47 GMT, and the period as 29 days, 12
hours, 44 minutes, 3 seconds (totaling 2,551,443 seconds).  Then
compute (((current_time_in_seconds - base_new_moon_time) % period) /
(float) period). 

You can get a more recent base new moon time from an astronomy
magazine, almanac, or ephemeris.

Barry Margolin
Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com
{uunet,harvard}!think!barmar