From: "Steve Morgan" [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 22:06:07 -0500
Subject: Moon calculations
Reply-to: steve-morgan~worldnet.att.net

Mr. Stehling:

After giving the matter more thought this afternoon, it occurred to me that I could send you a copy of the exact same software I've been using to do moon calculations. You can then use it do your own calculations any time you like!

The software is called "MoonCalc" and is distributed as freeware. I have attached it to this e-mail message in "zipped" format.

To use it, simply download the file to your computer. Then "unzip" it using a program like PKZip or WinZip. (If you are not sure how to do this, almost any computer-savvy friend could help you.) Then run the file Moonc52.exe to start the program.

From the program's main menu, select "Summary Tables of Moon Data." You'll need to enter the proper coordinates. For your information, the coordinates of Greenville are NORTH latitude 34 degrees, 50 minutes, and WEST longitude 82 degrees, 19 minutes. Our time zone offset is -5.

Remember that the time is on the 0-24 system, like military time. In other words, 0-12 hours for a.m. and 12-24 hours for p.m.

Now, when the summary data screen appears, look near the middle of the screen on the left and you'll see the "Phase" expressed as a decimal to 4 places. To go backward or forward in time, look at the bottom of the screen for the proper keys to press. For example, End/Home changes you plus or minus an hour, Pg Dn/Up changes you plus or minus a minute, and so forth.

MoonCalc runs fine on most computers. However, if you encounter any runtime errors or crashes, you may want to try running it on a *slower* machine.

Hope this helps,

Steve Morgan

Roper Mountain Science Center