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Astronomy on the Personal Computer
 
 

Astronomy on the Personal Computer [Kindle Edition]

Oliver Montenbruck , Thomas Pfleger , Richard M. West , Storm Dunlop
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Print List Price: £73.44
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Product Description

Product Description

A thorough introduction to the computation of celestial mechanics, covering everything from astronomical and computational theory to the construction of rapid and accurate applications programs. The book supplies the necessary knowledge and software solutions for determining and predicting positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, minor planets and comets, solar eclipses, stellar occultations by the Moon, phases of the Moon and much more. This completely revised edition takes advantage of C++, and individual applications may be efficiently realized through the use of a powerful module library. The accompanying CD-ROM contains the complete, fully documented and commented source codes as well as executable programs for Windows 98/2000/XP and LINUX.

From the Back Cover

Astronomy on the Personal Computer provides the reader with a thorough introduction to the computation of celestial mechanics, which is of particular significance to astronomical observations. Covering everything from astronomical and computational theory to the construction of rapid and accurate applications programs, this book supplies the necessary knowledge and software solutions for determining and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, minor planets and comets, solar eclipses, stellar occultations by the Moon, phases of the Moon and much more. This completely revised edition makes use of the widely implemented programming language C++, and individual applications may be efficiently realized through the use of a powerful module library. The accompanying CD-ROM contains, in addition to the complete, fully documented and commented source codes, the executable programs for use with the Windows 98/2000/XP and LINUX operating systems.

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 3336 KB
  • Print Length: 320 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 3540672214
  • Publisher: Springer; 4th edition (31 Dec 1990)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B000PC10A2
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #359,168 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
The pascal language routines were written in 1993 using the DOS command line.
However these routines can be easily adapted for pascal based Windows applications such as Delphi.
An excellent book overall and many thanks are due to Storm Dunlop for translating it from the German.
The book includes a comprehensive review of the coordinate systems and how they translate from one to the other.
Other chapters include computation of rising and setting times, cometary orbits, perturbations, planetary and moon orbits, eclipses and occultations, and astrometry.
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Format:Hardcover
I found this book to be extremely useful. Inevitably there is a good deal of mathematics involved, and I had to brush up on my 3D geometry and vector and matrix maths to understand the example programs. The program examples (included in the CD that comes with the book) are written in C++, so it's worth having some familiarity with this language when using this book.

Given those prerequisites the book is well written and offers a clear explanation of how to solve most of the common problems in astronomy, including the prediction of occultations and eclipses.

If you're serious about writing astronomy programs on the PC, or for that matter on embedded controllers, this book is a "must buy".
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:  4 reviews
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Exceptional value for money 12 Jan 2002
By Dan Dill - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
What I appreciate about this book is that details of many aspects of astronomical computations are clearly explained together with extensively documented full C++ source code and references for further information. As a bonus, extensive star catalogues are supplied, for use with, for example, astrometry.

C++ is *not* my language of choice, but the authors seem to have done a masterful job of using C++ features well, while avoiding obfuscation. Initially at least, I am translating things as I go into Mathematica, as a check that I am understanding what I am reading.

All in all, for getting under the hood, I think Montenbruck and Pfleger provide exceptional value for money.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Astronomy (Pascal Style) 21 Oct 2010
By A. J. Goldstein - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was a little disappointed with the book's programming code in Pascal. I was hoping at least it was in a more modern language such as C++ or Java, however, the algorithms work well on the generic Pascal compiler. There are too many programs for the average person just to type in, so I suggest getting the book with the media included. Mine came with a 3 1/2" floppy disk (can you tell this was from the 90's). Most machines don't even have floppy disks any more. I had to put this in my older laptop with my floppy to transfer the programs to my jump drive.

Overall, I like the book, and I suppose for a few more dollars I can get these programs in the "modern languages". Thank you for reading this review.
5 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Good C++ book for astromical calc 21 Sep 2003
By fjsuva - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This book does not use c-like/c++ but true c++. It begins with Vec3D class hiding private menbers. I learn many things of objective astronomical calc from this book.
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