Aigul9 / Astronomy

Astronomy Lib

Astronomy

Astronomy is a tiny .net standart 2.0 library for calculating sun position, sunlight phases (times for sunrise, sunset, dusk, etc.), moon position and lunar phase for the given location and time, created by Azat Salakhutdinov (@developerAzat), Aigul Sibgatullina (@Aigul9), Ilnar Aglyamzyanov (@ilnarag21).

Most calculations are based on the formulas given in the excellent Astronomy Answers articles about position of the sun and the planets.

NuGet

You can download the package from NuGet Package Manager

Install-Package Astronomy -Version 1.0.1

dotnet add package Astronomy --version 1.0.1

Usage example

//Moscow
var res = SunCalculator.GetTimes(DateTime.Now, 55.75700, 37.61500);

Console.WriteLine("Sunrise time in Moscow:  " + res.Sunrise.Hour.ToString() + ":" + res.Sunrise.Minute.ToString() + ":" + res.Sunrise.Second.ToString());
Console.WriteLine("Sunset time in Moscow:  " + res.Sunset.Hour.ToString() + ":" + res.Sunset.Minute.ToString() + ":" + res.Sunset.Second.ToString());

res = SunCalculator.GetTimes(DateTime.Now, 55.80030, 49.10827);

Console.WriteLine("Sunrise time in Kazan:  " + res.Sunrise.Hour.ToString() + ":" + res.Sunrise.Minute.ToString() + ":" + res.Sunrise.Second.ToString());
Console.WriteLine("Sunset time in Kazan:  " + res.Sunset.Hour.ToString() + ":" + res.Sunset.Minute.ToString() + ":" + res.Sunset.Second.ToString());

Reference

Sunlight times

SunCalculator.GetTimes(/*DateTime*/ date, /*double*/ latitude, /*double*/ longitude, /*double (default=0)*/ height)

Returns an object (SunTimes) with the following properties (each is a DateTime object):

Property	Description
Sunrise	sunrise (top edge of the sun appears on the horizon)
SunriseEnd	sunrise ends (bottom edge of the sun touches the horizon)
GoldenHourEnd	morning golden hour (soft light, best time for photography) ends
SolarNoon	solar noon (sun is in the highest position)
GoldenHour	evening golden hour starts
SunsetStart	sunset starts (bottom edge of the sun touches the horizon)
Sunset	sunset (sun disappears below the horizon, evening civil twilight starts)
Dusk	dusk (evening nautical twilight starts)
NauticalDusk	nautical dusk (evening astronomical twilight starts)
Night	night starts (dark enough for astronomical observations)
Nadir	nadir (darkest moment of the night, sun is in the lowest position)
NightEnd	night ends (morning astronomical twilight starts)
NauticalDawn	nautical dawn (morning nautical twilight starts)
Dawn	dawn (morning nautical twilight ends, morning civil twilight starts)

Sun position

SunPosition GetSunPosition(DateTime date, double lat, double lng)

Returns an object with the following properties:

• Altitude: sun altitude above the horizon in radians, e.g. 0 at the horizon and PI/2 at the zenith (straight over your head)
• Azimuth: sun azimuth in radians (direction along the horizon, measured from south to west), e.g. 0 is south and Math.PI * 3/4 is northwest

Moon position

MoonPosition GetMoonPosition(DateTime date, double lat, double lng)

Returns an object with the following properties:

• Altitude: moon altitude above the horizon in radians
• Azimuth: moon azimuth in radians
• Distance: distance to moon in kilometers
• ParallacticAngle: parallactic angle of the moon in radians

Moon illumination

Tuple<double, double, double> GetMoonIllumination(DateTime date)

Returns an object with the following properties:

• fraction: illuminated fraction of the moon; varies from 0.0 (new moon) to 1.0 (full moon)
• phase: moon phase; varies from 0.0 to 1.0, described below
• angle: midpoint angle in radians of the illuminated limb of the moon reckoned eastward from the north point of the disk; the moon is waxing if the angle is negative, and waning if positive

Moon phase value should be interpreted like this:

Phase	Name
0	New Moon
	Waxing Crescent
0.25	First Quarter
	Waxing Gibbous
0.5	Full Moon
	Waning Gibbous
0.75	Last Quarter
	Waning Crescent

By subtracting the parallacticAngle from the angle one can get the zenith angle of the moons bright limb (anticlockwise). The zenith angle can be used do draw the moon shape from the observers perspective (e.g. moon lying on its back).

Moon rise and set times

MoonTimes GetTimes(DateTime date, double lat, double lng)

Returns an object with the following properties:

• Rise: moonrise time as Date
• Set: moonset time as Date
• AlwaysUp: true if the moon never rises/sets and is always above the horizon during the day
• AlwaysDown: true if the moon is always below the horizon