Almanac and Celestial Navigation Calculator

[Sean C]

New version posted at my website.

Changes:
v 0.2.6

• Added printable bodies list
• Reformatted notes on "Precession and Stars" tab

[Sean C]

New version at my website.


beta v 0.2.7 Bug fixes/changes:

• Fixed a bug causing the intercept "away/toward" cell for sight #10 to remain empty
• Updated the cities database from ~15,500 cities to Pareto's current [free] offering: 26,570 cities (+ the two suggested cities)

And here's an animation I made showing "Xerxes' Eclipse" on Oct. 2nd, 480 BC:

[UPHILL3]

My friend recently bought me a rather high-end Celestron telescope for this past XMas. It's computer-controled, but I still want to learn to be able locate and recognize celestial objects from memory - perhaps your spreadsheet may help(?) So thanks for that...

[Sean C]

My friend recently bought me a rather high-end Celestron telescope for this past XMas. It's computer-controled, but I still want to learn to be able locate and recognize celestial objects from memory - perhaps your spreadsheet may help(?) So thanks for that...

There are numerous great apps for Android that will help with that: Sextant Stars, Google Sky Map, Nightshift (great app for astronomy) just to name a few. I think you can also get Stellarium on mobile. I don't use Apple products, so I can't advise on that.

Stellarium for desktop is an outstanding program, and it's free. My spreadsheet does give some information which would be interesting to amateur astronomers. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't somewhat familiar with all of the concepts involved.

I have a Travel Scope 80 from Celestron (in addition to all my sextants, transits and other toys). That's what I used to take the 'blue Moon' picture (blue filter also from Celestron) which is the background of the homepage of my website. I want to get an Omni XLT 120 ... but everyone is sold out at the moment. Oh, well ...

Cheers!
Sean C

[Sean C]

New version available at my website.

v 0.2.8 - 2021, Feb 28

• Increased the number of decimals of azimuth included in the data series to a ridiculous precision.
• Fixed a bug causing the spreadsheet to display wildly inaccurate values for the equation of time under certain circumstances.

[CRJ_simpilot]

Yeah, it doesn't work in Libre Office.

You said you have 15,500 locations of cities? Can I get that list? I've had a project in mind and I need a list like that. Thanks.

[Sean C]

Yeah, it doesn't work in Libre Office.

You said you have 15,500 locations of cities? Can I get that list? I've had a project in mind and I need a list like that. Thanks.

Sure. In fact, you can get 26,000 of them now ... from the same place I did:

Pareto Software, LLC

That's just the free database. There are paid options for up to 4.2 million cities!

Cheers!

[CRJ_simpilot]

Thanks. That might do the trick, though, I may have to convert for FS format on the coordinates, not sure. And if I do I need to know how to do that as well.

[Sean C]

If you can tell me what the format is, I might be able to do it. Shouldn't be hard, really.

[CRJ_simpilot]

Check your PMs.