Atri's Solar Eclipse

The mathematical modeling of motions of earth and moon around sun has been perfected since Keplar’s initial work, and has reached a very high degree of accuracy particularly since the advent of space travel and computers. One such work by Jean Meeus [Ref-7] provides numerical algorithms, which take in to account many periodic terms in Moon motion including longitude, latitude, and distance from earth. Such algorithms are embedded in many software codes currently available on market. One such code is LodeStar Pro copy righted by Wayne C Annala in 1994 [Ref- 8]. Annala states that Lodestar pro results have been validated against databases from US Naval Observatory’s Interactive computer Ephemeris, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. This article uses Annala’s Lodestar Pro for all eclipse estimations. Different researchers have addressed the issue of dating ancient and well-documented eclipses and arrived at appropriate DeltaT models. The table below lists results these historical eclipse studies. In order to develop confidence in Lodestar Pro used in this present study, following eclipses were checked with some changes to delta T appropriately.

Lodestar Pro could predict all these eclipses and approximate times for given locations suggesting that the algorithms used internally are in approximate agreement with other contemporary research data from others provided proper Delta T was used.