Is there any approximate way to calculate the right ascension of the Moon? I already got declination but still, need the right ascension to calculate the final position of the moon. Thanks for all your answers!
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$\begingroup$ Can you explain how or where you found how to calculate the declination? Also, how accurate or appropriate do you want the Right Ascension? $\endgroup$– JohnHoltzCommented Feb 3, 2023 at 2:25
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$\begingroup$ The astronomical almanac has a low precision moon position, accurate to .5 deg from 1900-2100. Example implementation here: celestialprogramming.com/lowprecisionmoonposition.html $\endgroup$– Greg MillerCommented Feb 3, 2023 at 3:15
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$\begingroup$ A more accurate method is to use VSOP 87: github.com/gmiller123456/vsop87-multilang. Highest precision can be obtained from using JPL's Development Ephemeris. $\endgroup$– Greg MillerCommented Feb 3, 2023 at 3:16
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If you're not opposed to a bit of Python, you can easily compute this with astropy.
import astropy.time
import astropy.coordinates
moon = astropy.coordinates.get_moon(astropy.time.Time.now())
print(moon.ra)
Which outputs
<Longitude 115.085153 deg>
