lunar.distance: Lunar Distance

In lunar: Calculate Lunar Phase & Distance, Seasons and Related Environmental Factors

Lunar Distance

Description

Returns the distance of the moon from the earth on specified dates.

Usage

lunar.distance(x, shift = 0, ..., name = FALSE, strict = FALSE)

Arguments

x	A vector of Date values.
shift	The number of hours by which to shift the distance calculation. By default distance is calculated at 12 noon UT.
...	Other optional arguments are ignored.
name	Optional parameter indicating whether the return is a factor variable consisting of a lunar distance label, or the lunar distance in earth radii. By default lunar phase is returned in earth radii.
strict	Optional parameter indicating whether the return should employ strict definitions for distance labels, that is, with apogee and perigee within 5 definition breaks the distance categories evenly into 20 The 'average' category is the same in both definitions.

Details

Distance to the moon is returned in units of earth radii, or as a 5-level factor variable referring to the moon's perigee (at about 56 earth radii) and apogee (at about 63.8 earth radii).

Adapted from Stephen R. Schmitt: Lunar Phase Computation: https://web.archive.org/web/20140716104947/http://mysite.verizon.net/res148h4j/zenosamples/zs_lunarphasecalc.html, Last accessed: 1 September 2014.

See Also

lunar.distances

Examples

lunar.distance(as.Date("2004-03-24"))

lunar documentation built on June 13, 2022, 5:06 p.m.