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Are you wanting to get your hands on the equations for calculating sunrise/sunset and solar noon? How about the equations for phases of the moon, moonrise/set? No problem! I've got them.

Everything on my website is free, except this part. Due to many requests for this information, I prepared two detailed documents... one for the Sun and one for the Moon. Each document contains step by step instructions for the respective calculations and a worked-out example of each. The Sun document contains instructions for calculating Sunrise, Sunset, and Solar Transit (noon). The Moon document contains instructions for calculating Moonrise, Moonset, and Moon Phase. The only information that must be known for each is the date and latitude/longitude of the desired location.

I put a tremendous amount of time and effort into these documents so I can't exactly afford to give them away for free. Over 80 hours total time was spent preparing and detailing the steps. Anybody who has the time and patience can go to the library and look this stuff up themselves. So if you purchase my instructions, which I hope you will of course, it will save you a ton of time from having to do the work yourself. It's more of a "convenience fee" I suppose.

Please e-mail mark@weatherimages.org if you want to purchase either or both. Checks, money orders, and paypal.com payments are all accepted. So e-mail me if you're interested.

Sunrise/Set and Solar Noon document:

  • 16 pages total
  • 2 examples included.
  • Breaks the calculation down into seven steps of multiple parts.
  • Well documented, explaining each step along the way.
  • Only variables that must be known are the date and latitude/longitude.
  • Accuracy is within +/- 4 minutes (usually within a minute).
  • All you need is a calculator that can handle trigonometric functions and atleast 10 decimal places. Excel is a great tool for this; if you want an Excel file with the equations already setup, no problem.
  • You don't have to be an astronomer to understand it.
  • Cost $30 for the documentation; $15 for the Excel file.

Moonrise/Set and Phase document:

  • 50+ pages total
  • 2 examples included.
  • Breaks the Lunar Phase calculation down into 7 steps.
  • Breaks the time of Moonrise/set calculation down into 11 steps.
  • Well documented, explaining each step along the way.
  • For Moonrise/set, the only variables that must be known are the date and latitude/longitude.
  • For Lunar Phase, the only variables that must be known are the month and year you wish to calculate a particular phase.
  • If you want to know when one might be able to see a particular phase at their location, then you will need to calculate Moonrise as well and if necessary, Sunset if Moonrise occurs during daylight hours. Both documents on this webpage will solve such problems.
  • Accuracy is within +/- 4 minutes.
  • All you need is a calculator that can handle trigonometric functions and atleast 12 decimal places.
  • You don't have to be an astronomer to understand it.
  • Costs $85 for the documentation; Excel file not available yet