More Mathematical Astronomy Morsels

Description

a book by Jean Meeus

Like the highly acclaimed Mathematical Astronomy Morsels and Mathematical Morsels III, More Mathematical Astronomy Morsels discusses a wide range of celestial configurations, cycles, and curiosity that Roger Sinnott observed in his Foreword to the first Morsels were “things almost impossible to find by paging through almanacs or scrolling through time with a computer’s planetarium program.” Some of these new subjects have been suggested by readers and friends, while others were inspired by actual (sometimes fictive) astronomical events, such as the so-called brightest Full Moon of December 1999, the recovering of asteroid Albert in May 2000, the long-duration lunar eclipse of July 2000, or the coming perhelic oppositions of Mars in August 2003. Altogether 75 different subjects are covered under six categories: The Moon, Eclipses and Occultations, Planetary Motions, Planetary Phenomena, On the Celestial Sphere, and Varia.

Table of Contents
Notes on Dates and Time Reckoning
THE MOON
The Harvest Moon
About the Moon’s elongation
The age of the Moon
The duration of the lunation
About the Metonic Cycle
Extreme perigees and apogees of the Moon
The brightest Full Moon and the phase effect

ECLIPSES AND OCCULTATIONS
The calculation of solar eclipses
Three special annular solar eclipses
The number of total solar eclipses per year
Solar eclipses and calendar months
Solar and lunar eclipses at a given place
Total solar eclipses per country
Three total solar eclipses in a short interval
Painted Globe
Long eclipseless periods
Total solar eclipses of long duration
About the smallest “single” solar eclipse
Is a non-central annular-total solar eclipse possible?
The extinction of total solar eclipses
Solar eclipses: Duos and Double Duos
Christmas eclipses
The Wednesday enigma
Lunar eclipses of long duration
Lunar eclipses on Easter Sunday
Simultaneous occultations of planets
Occultations of deep-sky objects during a total lunar eclipse
Occultations of bright stars by planets
Occultations of bright stars by minor planets
Mutual occultations of planets
Mutual occultations of minor planets
Eclipses of the satellites of Saturn

PLANETARY MOTIONS
Long-period variations of the orbit of the Earth
Long-period variations of the orbit of Venus
Long-period variations of the orbit of Mars
Mars’ closest approaches to Earth
The recovery of Albert
Cruithne, an asteroid with a remarkable orbit
Evolution of two cometary orbits
The motion of a satellite with respect to the Sun

PLANETARY PHENOMENA
About some planetary conjunctions
About the Venus-Jupiter conjunctions
Close planet-star conjunctions
The Jupiter-Regulus conjunctions
Venus and the Pleiades
Planetary groupings
Illuminated fraction and greatest elongation
Transits of Mercury – panoramas and partial transits
Jupiter without satellites, 1600-1799
On the changing aspect of Saturn’s ring
Equinoxes and solstices on Uranus and Neptune
Transits as seen from Pluto

ON THE CELESTIAL SPHERE
Sun and horizon
About the shortest day
Culmination and meridian transit
The greatest variation of the altititde
Pole and constellations
Zodiacal constellations
Precession, aberration & Co.
Proper motions and star patterns
All five planets simultaneously
Venus as evening and morning star

VARIA
The Gregorian calendar and the tropical year
Some special astronomical phenomena during the 21st century
The shortest and the longest twilight
The day of the year – a mathematical joke
Approximations
The effect of DeltaT on astronomical calculations
The Simplex method and the least distance between two
planetary orbits
Astronomical anomalies?
Some popular misconceptions
Incorrect definitions
Planets and radio disturbances
Peculiarities about minor planet names
About sunspot activity