In my message of yesterday I didn't want in any way to claim the priority or the paternity of the Fourier series for declination  and for  EoT . 

It would be as to claim the priority of the invention “of the warm water" , as we say here  :-)

 

In fact many series of sines and cosines were invented to make faster the astronomic calculations, before the diffusion of the calculators as can be found in texts of mathematical astronomy of the end of the XIXth  and of the first half the XXth century. 

With my note I want only to explain the method used for the calculation and the values of the errors. 

I am sorry if, certainly owing to my bad knowledge of the English language, I have been misunderstood.

 

Always because of the difficulty to make clear the things in a different language from one's mother one,  I fear to have been not very clear on the errors of the results.

 

Two types of error can be defined: 

1 - difference between the mean value calculated with the series and the mean value calculated exactly on a given period of years. The maximum value of this error is around 3-4 '   (as Davis writes)

2 - difference between the mean value calculated with the series on a given day (f.i. on March 23) and the exact value on a given date (f.i. on  March 23,  2004). In this case the error can arrive to 15'. 

 

Since the exact value is necessary when we want to find the azimuth of a wall (with some methods),  it is not advisable to use the results of the development in series to find the declination of the Sun in these cases. 

From calculations we have also that it is a good rule to use mean values calculated at 12.00h (local time)   on a period of time around equal to that in which we supposed that the clock will stay in operation. 

 

 

Gianni Ferrari

44° 39' N      10° 55' E
Mailto : [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 

Reply via email to