MoonTool for the Pilot

The Pilot MoonTool is an application program for the Pilot PDA to calculate and display the current phase of the moon and some other fun astronomical facts. It is Free software. This program was developed using the Free Pilot Development tools for Linux.

Some interesting links to the moon:

Points to ponder about MoonTool:

• It isn't quite "finished" yet.
• Takes about 33K or RAM because of the floating point.
• Single precision numbers are not as accurate as needed.
• Be sure to set your offset from UTC (doesn't work yet)
• Fixed to UTC5 right now (Eastern US) but shouldn't affect the results much.

Comments from the original program:

/*

    A Moon for the Sun

    Release 2.0

    Designed and implemented by John Walker in December 1987,
    revised and updated in February of 1988.

    The algorithms used in this program to calculate the positions Sun and
    Moon as seen from the Earth are given in the book "Practical Astronomy
    With  Your  Calculator"  by  Peter  Duffett-Smith,   Second   Edition,
    Cambridge University Press, 1981.  Ignore the word "Calculator" in the
    title;  this  is  an  essential  reference  if  you're  interested  in
    developing	software  which  calculates  planetary	positions, orbits,
    eclipses, and  the  like.   If  you're  interested  in  pursuing  such
    programming, you should also obtain:

    "Astronomical  Formulae for Calculators" by Jean Meeus, Third Edition,
    Willmann-Bell, 1985.  A must-have.

    "Planetary  Programs  and  Tables  from  -4000  to  +2800"  by  Pierre
    Bretagnon  and Jean-Louis Simon, Willmann-Bell, 1986.  If you want the
    utmost  (outside  of  JPL)  accuracy  for  the  planets,  it's   here.

    "Celestial BASIC" by Eric Burgess, Revised Edition, Sybex, 1985.  Very
    cookbook oriented, and many of the algorithms are hard to dig  out	of
    the turgid BASIC code, but you'll probably want it anyway.

    Many of these references can be obtained from Willmann-Bell, P.O.  Box
    35025,  Richmond,  VA 23235, USA.  Phone: (804) 320-7016.  In addition
    to their own publications, they stock most of the standard	references
    for mathematical and positional astronomy.

    This program was written by:

       John Walker
       Autodesk, Inc.
       2320 Marinship Way
       Sausalito, CA  94965
       (415) 332-2344 Ext. 829

       Usenet: {sun!well}!acad!kelvin

    This  program is in the public domain: "Do what thou wilt shall be the
    whole of the law".  I'd appreciate  receiving  any  bug  fixes  and/or
    enhancements,  which  I'll  incorporate  in  future  versions  of  the
    program.  Please leave the original attribution information intact	so
    that credit and blame may be properly apportioned.


*/