Lunar Perigee and Apogee Calculator 2004
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/pacalc.html
Distance du centre de la Terre (RT = 6378 Km)
Perigée
Apogée
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
Jan 3 20:20 405706 km F-3d19h
Jan 19 19:26 362767 km N-2d
1h Jan 31 14:01
404806 km F-5d18h
Feb 16 7:35 368319 km
N-4d 1h Feb
28 10:46 404257 km F-7d12h
Mar 12 3:38 369509 km
F+5d 4h Mar
27 7:03 404519 km N+6d 8h
Apr 8 2:29 364547 km
F+2d15h Apr
24 0:27 405402 km N+4d11h
May 6 4:30 359811 km
F+1d 7h May
21 12:03 406261 km - N+2d 7h
Jun 3 13:11 357248 km ++ F+
8h Jun 17 16:03
406574 km -- N- 4h
Jul 1 23:01 357449 km + F-
12h Jul 14
21:09 406191 km - N-2d14h
Jul 30 6:27 360325 km
F-1d11h Aug
11 9:35 405290 km N-4d15h
Aug 27 5:38 365105 km
F-2d20h Sep 8 2:43 404462
km N-6d11h
Sep 22 21:13 369599 km F-5d15h
Oct 5 22:11 404326 km F+7d 9h
Oct 18 0:04 367757 km
N+3d21h Nov 2 18:10 404998 km
F+5d15h
Nov 14 13:55 362312 km N+1d23h
Nov 30 11:26 405951 km F+3d15h
Dec 12 21:31 357985 km N+
20h Dec 27 19:16 406487 km +
F+1d 4h
Nouvelle Lune
Pleine Lune
2003 Dec 23 9:45
2004 Jan 7 15:43
2004 Jan 21 21:08
2004 Feb 6 8:50
2004 Feb 20 9:21
2004 Mar 6 23:17
2004 Mar 20 22:45
2004 Apr 5 11:05
2004 Apr 19 13:24
2004 May 4 20:36
2004 May 19 4:55
2004 Jun 3 4:21
2004 Jun 17 20:29
2004 Jul 2 11:10
2004 Jul 17 11:25
2004 Jul 31 18:06
2004 Aug 16 1:24
2004 Aug 30 2:23
2004 Sep 14 14:29
2004 Sep 28 13:09
2004 Oct 14 2:48
2004 Oct 28 3:08
2004 Nov 12 14:27
2004 Nov 26 20:08
2004 Dec 12 1:29
2004 Dec 26 15:07
2005 Jan 10 12:04
To display the date, time, and distance of lunar
perigees and apogees for a given year, enter the year in the
box below and press "Calculate". Depending on
the speed of your computer, it may take a while for the
results to appear in the text boxes. This page
requires your browser to support JavaScript, and that
JavaScript be enabled; all computation is done
on your own computer so you can, if you wish, save this
page in a file and use it even when not connected
to the Internet.
Year:
Perigees and Apogees
New and Full Moons
The Perigee and Apogee Table
All dates and times are Universal time (UTC);
to convert to local time add or subtract the difference
between your time zone and UTC, remembering to
include any additional offset due to summer time for
dates when it is in effect. For each perigee
and apogee the distance in kilometres between the centres of
the Earth and Moon is given. Perigee and apogee
distances are usually accurate to within a few kilometres
compared to values calculated with the definitive
ELP 2000-82 theory of the lunar orbit; the maximum
error over the years 1977 through 2022 is 12
km in perigee distance and 6 km at apogee.
The closest perigee and most distant apogee of
the year are marked with "++" if closer in time to full
Moon or "--" if closer to new Moon. Other close-to-maximum
apogees and perigees are flagged with a
single character, again indicating the nearer
phase. Following the flags is the interval between the moment
of perigee or apogee and the closest new or full
phase; extrema cluster on the shorter intervals, with a
smaller bias toward months surrounding the Earth's
perihelion in early January. "F" indicates the perigee or
apogee is closer to full Moon, and "N" that new
Moon is closer. The sign indicates whether the perigee or
apogee is before ("-") or after ("+") the indicated
phase, followed by the interval in days and hours. Scan
for plus signs to find "photo opportunities"
where the Moon is full close to apogee and perigee.
The Moon Phase Table
This table gives the time of all new and full
Moons in the indicated year, as well as the last phase of the
preceding year and the first phase of the next
year.
References
Meeus, Jean. Astronomical Algorithms . Richmond:
Willmann-Bell, 1998.
ISBN 0-943396-63-8.
The essential reference for
computational positional astronomy. The
calculation of perigee and
apogee time and distance is performed using the
algorithm given in Chapter
48.
Meeus, Jean. Astronomical Formulæ for Calculators,
Fourth Edition . Richmond: Willmann-Bell, 1988.
ISBN 0-943396-22-0.
This book, largely superseded
by the more precise algorithms given in Astronomical Algorithms,
remains valuable when program
size and speed are more important than extreme precision. The date
and time of the phases of
the Moon are calculated using the method given in Chapter 32, and are
accurate within 2 minutes,
more than adequate for our purposes here. The more elaborate method in
Chapter 47 of Astronomical
Algorithms reduces the maximum error to 17.4 seconds (and mean
error to less than 4 seconds),
but would substantially increase the size and download time for this
page, and the calculation
time for each update.
Chapront-Touzé, Michelle and Jean Chapront.
Lunar Tables and Programs from 4000 B.C. to A.D. 8000
. Richmond: Willmann-Bell, 1991. ISBN 0-943396-33-6.
If you need more precise calculation
of the Moon's position than given in the references above,
you're probably going to end
up here. This book presents the ELP 2000-85 theory which, while less
accurate than ELP 2000-82,
has been tested for stability over a much longer time span. ELP
2000-85 generates predictions
of lunar longitude accurate to 0.0004 degrees for the years 1900
through 2100, and 0.0054 degrees
for the period 1500 through 2500.
Chapront-Touzé, Michelle and Jean Chapront.
Lunar solution ELP 2000-82B.
This is the most precise semi-analytical
theory of the Moon's motion for observations near the
present epoch. Machine-readable
files for all of the tables and a sample FORTRAN program which
uses them to compute lunar
ephemerides may be obtained from the Astronomical Data Center at the
NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center by FTP across the Internet, or on CD-ROM, along with a wide
variety of other astronomical
catalogues and tables. This material is intended for experts in
positional astronomy and computation.
If you can't figure it out, don't ask me for help.
Back to Inconstant Moon: Moon at Perigee and Apogee
Return to Earth and Moon Viewer
Other Astronomy and Space resources at this site
by John Walker
May 5, 1997
This document is in the public domain.