Institut für Astronomie und AstrophysikAbteilung AstronomieSand 1, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany |
MPHASE
Return the illuminated fraction of the Moon at given Julian date(s)
MPHASE, jd, k
JD - Julian date, scalar or vector, double precision recommended
k - illuminated fraction of Moon's disk (0.0 < k < 1.0), same number of elements as jd. k = 0 indicates a new moon, while k = 1 for a full moon.
Plot the illuminated fraction of the moon for every day in July 1996 at 0 TD (~Greenwich noon). IDL> jdcnv, 1996, 7, 1, 0, jd ;Get Julian date of July 1 IDL> mphase, jd+dindgen(31), k ;Moon phase for all 31 days IDL> plot, indgen(31),k ;Plot phase vs. July day number
Algorithm from Chapter 46 of "Astronomical Algorithms" by Jean Meeus (Willmann-Bell, Richmond) 1991. SUNPOS and MOONPOS are used to get positions of the Sun and the Moon (and the Moon distance). The selenocentric elongation of the Earth from the Sun (phase angle) is then computed, and used to determine the illuminated fraction.
MOONPOS, SUNPOS
Written W. Landsman Hughes STX June 1996 Converted to IDL V5.0 W. Landsman September 1997 Use /RADIAN keywords to MOONPOS, SUNPOS internally W. Landsman Aug 2000
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