Indian Calendar Astronomical Data

[Harry Spier]

Dear list members:

     I had to make a list of the dates of the Indian Lunar holidays for the
year 2000.  Because I was unable to find either a panchanga or lunar
calendar for year 2000 I had to derive the start and end dates of the tithis
from astronomical data.  This I did from the Nasa JPL web site at
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.html .  It was quite easy but tedious.
I.e. extracting the longtitudes of the sun and moon wrt the ecliptic for
each hour of year 2000, and pasting the data into an excel spreadsheet and
deriving the phase angle and tithi from this.  But after doing this it
occured to me that a much easier way of doing this would be to work directly
with the formulas for deriving the longtitudes of the sun and the moon and
that this is probably available in an Indian source somewhere with all the
constants necessary for Indian calendar calculations.

     Do any of the list members know either these formulas (preferably with
the constants and degree of accuracy appropriate for the tithi derivation)
or a source where I can get them either in the USA or in India?  Also I
understand there is an "Indian Astronomical Ephemeris" and a Report from the
Committee for Calendar Reform (1957).  Does anyone know where I can get
copies of these?

Thanks in advance,


Harry


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