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I have received a few notes about the GHA Aries formula that I want to share
with the group.

The hour in the example is copied onto the hour line line incorrectly.  It was
a typo.  The calculations reflect the hour at the top of the form and seem to
be correct.

The form is a lot easier to figure out when printed in a typewriter font.

One person had problems with the equals sign and the degree symbol that I
used.  His computer displayed them as "equal bee three" and "equal bee oh".
If you have that problem I can send you a copy as a Word file.  Just let me
know.

It is also possible to calculate the GHA and declination of the Sun to a
useful accuracy by a similar method.  The moon and planets are a little much.
(In fact the Sun may also be a little too much to do without a programmable
calculator.)

Based on the request for a Sun form, I put this together last night.  It has
not been well tested, so there may be some boner left in it.  Like the Aries
form there is one blank and one filled in with a worked example.  The accuracy
is about 1', maybe a little better.  (Remember the Nautical Almanac is only
good to 0.25' for the Sun with the biggest errors occuring in late December
and early January.)  The calculations are based on a 0.01 degree formula from
the Astronomical Almanac.

Let me know what you think.

   

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