Observational data

In lieu of actual observational data (which is unfortunately unavailable to the author) we shall employ accurate ephemeris data published by NASA [2]. This data gives the right-ascensions and declinations of the Sun and planets at two-day intervals, starting at 00:00:00 TDT (Terrestrial Dynamical Time) on January 1, 1995. In the following, we shall adopt a day numbering scheme in which Jan. 1, 1995 is day 0, Jan. 2, 1995 is day 1, etc. All times will be given in day numbers. We shall also transform right-ascension and declination into ecliptic latitude and longitude [see Eqs. (43)--(45)] using an ecliptic inclination to the equation of $\epsilon=23.4375^\circ$ (this being the value of $\epsilon$ which best zeroes out the ecliptic latitude of the Sun).