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Ecliptic Declinations and Right Ascenesions.

According to Eqs. (38) and (39), the celestial coordinates of a point on the ecliptic circle (i.e., $\beta = 0$) which has ecliptic longitude $\lambda$ are specified by
$\displaystyle \sin\,\delta$ $\textstyle =$ $\displaystyle \sin\epsilon\,\sin\lambda,$ (40)
$\displaystyle \tan\,\alpha$ $\textstyle =$ $\displaystyle \cos\epsilon\,\tan\lambda.$ (41)

The above formulae have been employed to construct Tables 5 and 6, which list the declinations and right ascensions of a set of equally spaced points on the ecliptic circle.



Richard Fitzpatrick 2008-02-25