5/9/2020 Oblique angle of the ecliptic – RadixPro

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Background information on astrology

Oblique angle of the ecliptic

The earth has an oblique position. In its course around the sun the axis of the earth
is not point pointing upwards but it has an inclination of about 23.4 degrees. We call
this angle the tilt of the axis of the earth and in calculations we mostly call it by the
greek letter ε (Epsilon).

The earth rotates around its own axis. That axis is the line between north pole and
south pole, not the magnetic one but the one de ned by rotation. The equator
de nes the plane that is created by the axial rotation of the earth. By de nition the
axis of the earth and the equator are separated by 90 degrees.

In the drawing we de ne the ecliptic as a horizontal gray plane. The ecliptic is the
plane that is de ned by the earths rotation around the sun and that is also indicated
in the drawing.

At the top and the bottom you will nd the North ecliptic pole and the South ecliptic
pole. They indicate the axis that de nes the movement of the ecliptic. But the earth
rotates around another axis en that axis runts through the North celestial pole and
the South celestial pole. The ecliptic pole and the celestial pole are separated by an
angle of about 23.4 degrees.

The equator – de ned in green as celestial equator – is the plane created by the
rotation of the earth (the axial rotation around the North celestial pole and the
South celestial pole). The pools of ecliptic and equator di er 23.4 degrees, therefore
there is also a di erence of 23.4 degrees between ecliptic and equator.

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By Tfr000 (talk) 01:59, 15 March 2012 (UTC) – Own work, CC BY-SA

3.0, Wikipedia

Average obliquity and true obliquity

The moon in uences the position of the axis of the earth, this in uence is called the
nutation. The calculation of Epsilon that we will describe is for the mean value.
Because of the nutation minor di erences will occur of about a few arc seconds. In
the formulas I will omit the in uence of nutation.

Precision

It is quite common to use a constant value to de ne the obliquity of the earth axis,
typically a value like 23.44. That is perfectly ne for calculations that require a
standard precision and are performed more or less for the current timespan.

But if you need a higher precision, or if you need calculations for remote times, you
will have to calculate Epsilon yourself.

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The diagram
gives the values
for Epsilon for a
period of 20.000
years. The value
0 at the
horizontal line
indicates the
year 2000 CE. It
is indicated with
a red dot. About
8000 or 9000
years ago the
By Tfr000 (talk) 17:58, 21 March 2012 (UTC) – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikipedia
value of Epsilon
was 24.2
degrees, so a di erence with the current value of 0.7 degrees.

10.000 years in he future the value will be about 22.5 degrees, that is about a full
degree di erence with the current value.

Formula

ε (Epsilon) is about 23.447. If you are a programmer you can use the value as
supplied by the Swiss Ephemeris via swe_houses_armc(), it is the value ‘eps’.

The following formula is provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA) and is
also used by the International Astronomical Union.

ε = 23° 26′ 21.448″

− 46.815″ T
− 0.00059″ T^2
+ 0.001813″T^3

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For factor T see Factor t and delta T. Technically you should also need to correct for
delta T but the e ect of this is extremely small and can safely be ignored.

After 2000 years, this formula will deviate from the real position by about 1 arc
second. After 10.000 years the deviation will amount to about 10 arc seconds. For the
current time the formula has a high precision.

If you need to calculate Epsilon for far remote times you can use the following
formula:

ε = 23° 26′ 21.448″

− 4680.93″ t
− 1.55″ t^2
+ 1999.25″ t^3
− 51.38″ t^4
− 249.67″ t^5
− 39.05″ t^6
+ 7.12″ t^7
+ 27.87″ t^8
+ 5.79″ t^9
+ 2.45″ t^10

Important: you need to calculate t by calculating factor T as described in Factor t and

delta T. Then you calculate t by dividing factor T by 100 .

After thousand years this formula gives a maximal deviation of 0.2 arcseconds. After
10,000 years the deviation can add up to a few arcseconds.

You cannot use this formula before 8000 BCE or after 12000 CE

Example calculations

We use the same date and time as in the example for calculating factor T:

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November 2, 2016 (Gregorian calendar) 21:17:30 UT

Factor T is 0.168388423

Simple formula:

ε = 23° 26' 21.448”

− 46.815″ T
− 0.00059″ T^2
+ 0.001813″ T^3

Convert to degrees using decimal values

23.439291111111
– 0.0130041666667 * T
– 1.63888888889e-07 * T^2
+ 5.959274797e-09 * T^3

Calculate values for T

23.439291111111
– 0.0130041666667 * 0.168388423
– 1.63888888889e-07 * 0.028354661
+ 5.959274797e-09 * 0.00477459665056

Simplify

23.439291111111
- 0.00218975111631
- 4.64701388611e-09

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+ 2.84531334822e-11
= 23.4371013554

Converted to degrees, minutes and seconds

23° 26' 13,56487944''

Long term formula:

ε = 23° 26′ 21.448″

− 4680.93″ t
− 1.55″ t^2
+ 1999.25″ t^3
− 51.38″ t^4
− 249.67″ t^5
− 39.05″ t^6
+ 7.12″ t^7
+ 27.87″ t^8
+ 5.79″ t^9
+ 2.45″ t^10

Convert to degrees using decimal values

23.439291111111
- 1.30025833333 * t
- 0.000430555555556 * t^2
+ 0.555347222222 * t^3
- 0.0142722222222 * t^4
- 0.0693527777778 * t^5
- 0.0108472222222 * t^6
+ 0.00197777777778 * t^7
+ 0.00774166666667 * t^8
+ 0.00160833333333 * t^9
+ 0.000680555555556 * t^10

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Calculate values for T

t is calculated for 10.000 years. Therefore you have to divide factor T by 100:

t = 0.168388423 / 100 = 0.00168388423

23.439291111111
- 1.30025833333 * 0.00168388423
- 0.000430555555556 * 2.8354661e-06
+ 0.555347222222 * 4.77459665056e-09
- 0.0142722222222 * 8.03986800449e-12
- 0.0693527777778 * 1.3538206944e-14
- 0.0108472222222 * 2.27967731756e-17
+ 0.00197777777778 * 3.83871268452e-20
+ 0.00774166666667 * 6.463947753e-23
+ 0.00160833333333 * 1.08845396848e-25
+ 0.000680555555556 * 1.8328304726e-28

Simplify

23.439291111111
- 0.00218948450242
- 1.22082566619e-09
+ 2.65155898711e-09
- 1.1474678278e-13
- 9.38912257592e-16
- 2.47281664535e-19
+ 7.59212061286e-23
+ 5.00417288114e-25
+ 1.75059679568e-28
+ 1.24734295034e-31
= 23.437101628

Converted to degrees, minutes and seconds

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23° 26' 13.56586091''

The difference with the simple formula is only 1 thousand of an arc second and therefore irrelevant.

However, in remote times the differences will noticeable.

References

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_tilt
Meeus, Jean: Astronomical Algorithms. Second edition. Richmond, Virginia, 1998.

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