Are the coordinates of the moon wrong?

Asked by François Guerraz

Hi,

I'm currently writing a software that needs accurate moon coordinates (in order to do Ozone measurements with a Dobson spectro-photometer).

I've written my software implementing the algorithms of Jean Meeus "Astronomical Algorithms", which are derived fromELP-2000/82, Stellarium is using ELP-2000/82B (http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.php/Precision http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~stellarium/stellarium/trunk/view/head:/src/core/planetsephems/elp82b.c).

So I used Stellarium as a reference software to test my program. And they do disagree. Of course, I first thought something was wrong with my code but:
*If I use Stellarium to solve the examples in the book, it doesn't find the correct answer, my program does.
*If I use the Fortran program provided by Chapront-Touze & J. Chapront (ftp://ftp.imcce.fr/pub/ephem/moon/elp82b) who published the paper ELP-2000/82B, my program find the good answer within +/-10", Stellarium is way off.

This is odd, because from Stellarium source code:
"I (Johannes Gajdosik) have just taken the Fortran code and data obtained from above and used it to create this piece of software."

Example chosen at random, position of the moon on the 16/12/2012 at 12:00 UT:
Stellarium gives : Ecliptic Geocentric: +308°58'33.0"/+5°49'31.0"
Chapront-Touze & J. Chapront Fortran program gives: Rectangular Geocentric Coordinates x=227572.1998 y=-287830.74822 z=32073.85743, which, if I'm not wrong, translates to: +308°19'53.4"/+4°59'44.3" which is also what my software finds.

I'm now very confused, I'm not an astronomer, and I can't understand where the difference comes from. Can somebody enlighten me? I might be a coordinate system conversion problem? A bug in Stellarium?

Best regards,
François.

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Solved by:
Alexander Wolf
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Revision history for this message
Alexander Wolf (alexwolf) said :
#1

Do you set time zone correct?

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François Guerraz (kubrick) said :
#2

Assuming that Stellarium uses my computer TZ, yes, it's all in UT...

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François Guerraz (kubrick) said :
#3

Hi,

If you try this JavaScript implementation of the same algorithm (Jean Meeus "Astronomical Algorithms", which are derived fromELP-2000/82): [FR] http://pgj.pagesperso-orange.fr/position-planetes.htm

The results are also in contradiction with Stellarium.

Cheers,

François.

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Best Alexander Wolf (alexwolf) said :
#4

I did some investigation and as results I can say: you are right, because Stellarium shows ecliptical topocentric coordinates, not ecliptical geocentric coordinates.

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François Guerraz (kubrick) said :
#5

That explains a lot of things! I was finding odd that in spite of the "geocentric" coordinates were wrong, the altitude and azimuth were correct.

Do you wish me to file a bug report in this regard?

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François Guerraz (kubrick) said :
#6

Thanks Alexander Wolf, that solved my question.

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Alexander Wolf (alexwolf) said :
#7

Yes, you need fill bug report. Possible we must be display both values - geocentric and topocentric coordinates.