Astronomical Tables of the Sun, Moon and Planets; 3rd Edition
By Jean Meeus.
Product Information: hardbound, 6" by 9", 487 pages.
For more than a generation amateur and professional astronomers have turned to Astronomical Tables of the Sun, Moon and Planets by Jean Meeus as an authoritative source for many of the past and future predictable astronomical events. This third edition now extends the data into the period of 2040–2050 as detailed below in the Table of Contents.
Note on Time Reckoning
Part 1: Planetary Phenomena 2010–2040
Part 2: Oppositions of Mars 0–3000
Part 3: Equinoxes and Solstices 1–3000
Part 4: Phases of the Moon 1970–2050
Part 5: Occultations of Planets and Bright Stars 2010–2040
Part 6: Sunspot Activity 1749–2014
Part 7: Other Tables
About the Author
Jean Meeus, born in 1928, studied mathematics at the University of Louvain (Leuven) in Belgium, where he received the Degree of Licentiate in 1953. From then until his retirement in 1993 he was a meteorologist at Brussels Airport. His special interest is spherical and mathematical astronomy. He is a member of several astronomical associations and the author of many scientific papers. He is co-author of Canon of Solar Eclipses (1966, 1983), and the Canon of Lunar Eclipses (1979). His Astronomical Formulae for Calculators (1979, 1982, 1985 and 1988) has been widely acclaimed by both amateur and professional astronomers. He is, with Fred Espenak, one of the authors of Five Millennium Canon of Solar Eclipses (2006) and Five Millennium Canon of Lunar Eclipses (2009). Further works, published by Willmann-Bell, Inc., are Elements of Solar Eclipses 1951–2200 (1989), Transits (1989), Astronomical Algorithms (1991, 1998), and the 5-volume Mathematical Astronomy Morsels series (1997, 2002, 2004, 2007, and 2009). For his numerous contributions to astronomy the International Astronomical Union announced in 1981 the naming of asteroid 2213 Meeus in his honor.
About the Cover Photograph
Not all astronomical tables need be written in the familiar tabular form. Here Dennis di Cicco recorded, on a single piece of photographic film, the apparent movement of the sun along the ecliptic for a period of one year. The result—an analemma—is sometimes seen drawn on globes of the world or incorporated into the design of sundials. The camera was rigidly mounted in the same position throughout the year. Using a filter to block all but the sun, 44 separate exposures were made at about seven-day intervals and at precisely 8:30 A.M. EST. Three times during the year, the camera’s shutter was opened at sunrise and closed at 8:25 A.M. EST. The resultant streaks show the diurnal path of the sun near the time of the summer and winter solstices, and the analemma’s crossover point. Finally, to record foreground detail and the background of the sky a normal exposure was made. All told there were a total of 48 exposures. Dennis di Cicco told the fascinating story of how this picture was made in “Exposing the Analemma’’ in the June 1979 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine.