ISBN 0 521 35629 6 hard covers
ISBN 0 521 35699 7 paperback
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, and Melbourne.
Practical astronomy with your calculator has been written for those who wish to calculate the positional and visual aspects of the major heavenly bodies and important phenomena such as eclipses, either for practical purposes or simply because they enjoy making predictions. I have tried to cut a path through the complexities and difficult concepts of rigorous mathematics, taking account only of those factors which are essential to each calculation and ignoring corrections for this and that, necessary for the very precise predictions of astronomical phenomena. My simple methods are usually sufficient for all but the most exacting amateur astronomer; for example, the times of sunrise and sunset can be determined to within one minute and the position of the Moon to within one fifth of a degree.
ISBN 0 521 38093 6 hard covers
ISBN 0 521 38995 X paperback
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, and Melbourne.
(currently being reprinted)
The book gives a set of fully-interlinking subroutines written in a common form of BASIC which can be combined together as required to solve almost any astronomical problem. The reader need not be an expert; only a broad understanding of the problem is needed since the subroutines themselves take care of the details. The operation of every subroutine is fully explained with detailed notes alongside the code itself, and is illustrated by its use in a handling program whose results are listed for one or more example calculations. There is also a disk available by mail order from the author to short-circuit the tedium of typing in the lines of computer code at the keyboard. (See the order form at the back of the book.) This is the book for the book for the computer minded astronomer who wishes to make astronomical predictions with the minimum of fuss.