CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonastronomyskyfield
AviD1511
AviD1511

Reputation: 149

Is there a way to know date and time given the coordinates of a planet (sun,moon etc.)

Skyfield has the functionality to compute the phases of the moon. but What if I wanted to know when would the moon be 20 degrees from the sun or 25 degrees from the sun.

How can I get the exact date and time when the sun and moon would be at a certain degree longitude?

Edit(for clarification): Is it possible to know the next (or previous) date and time the sun or moon would be at a certain position? Like skyfield provides a function to find when sun and moon are at 0 degrees or 180 degrees (new moon, full moon).

Upvotes: 2

Views: 588

Answers (1)

Brandon Rhodes
Brandon Rhodes

Reputation: 89415

Yes, Skyfield supports a possible approach. Look at its almanac.py module and you will find there are two steps:

  1. Create a function that, given a date, returns 0 if the Moon is <20° from the Sun or 1 if the Moon is ≥20°. You can either create this function directly and simply, or be more complicated like Skyfield is, and return a function from inside another function that holds the references to things like the ephemeris that the function will need to generate its answer.

  2. Pass that function to the find_discrete() routine to tell you the moments at which the function flips from 0 to 1 or back again during a particular time period.

Hopefully the examples there will help you get started!

Upvotes: 1

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