| Preface | p. xi |
| Basic formulae | |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Spherical geometry - great circle arcs | p. 1 |
| Spherical polar coordinates | p. 6 |
| Spherical trigonometry - basic formulae | p. 8 |
| Terrestrial latitude and longitude | p. 12 |
| Right ascension and declination | p. 14 |
| The displacement of a star on the celestial sphere | p. 16 |
| The celestial sphere | |
| Introduction | p. 22 |
| The alt-azimuth system | p. 23 |
| Hour angle and declination | p. 25 |
| Sidereal time and right ascension | p. 30 |
| The ecliptic and ecliptic coordinates | p. 32 |
| Apparent and mean solar time | p. 35 |
| Galactic coordinates | p. 40 |
| Setting a telescope | p. 43 |
| The reference frame | |
| Inertial frames of reference | p. 48 |
| Precession, nutation and proper motion | p. 49 |
| The origin of the reference frame | p. 58 |
| Selective review of special relativity | p. 62 |
| General relativity | p. 70 |
| General relativistic treatment of parallax, aberration and light deflection | p. 75 |
| Geocentric coordinates | |
| Introduction | p. 82 |
| Approximate refraction formulae | p. 82 |
| Refraction in a radially symmetric atmosphere | p. 87 |
| The refraction constants and refraction tables | p. 93 |
| Geocentric coordinates of the observer | p. 96 |
| Geocentric parallax | p. 101 |
| The effect of geocentric parallax on right ascension and declination | p. 106 |
| Diurnal aberration | p. 109 |
| Direct measurements of right ascension and declination | |
| Introduction | p. 113 |
| Errors of the meridian circle | p. 114 |
| The removal of instrumental effects | p. 117 |
| Reduction to the apparent place | p. 122 |
| Polar motion | p. 124 |
| The Danjon astrolabe and the photographic-zenith tube | p. 128 |
| Two-body orbital motion | |
| Basic equations | p. 137 |
| Kepler's equation for a bound orbit | p. 139 |
| Kepler's three laws | p. 143 |
| The solution of Kepler's equation | p. 144 |
| The equation of the centre | p. 147 |
| Components of a planet's velocity | p. 148 |
| Elliptic and hyperbolic orbits | p. 149 |
| Comparison of general relativity with Newtonian theory | p. 151 |
| The Kepler solution in general relativity | p. 153 |
| The relativistic advance of perihelion | p. 156 |
| Planetary and satellite orbits | |
| The orbit in space | p. 162 |
| Calculation of an ephemeris | p. 165 |
| Planetary masses | p. 167 |
| Planetary perturbations | p. 169 |
| The orbit of the moon | p. 171 |
| Calculation of osculating elements | p. 176 |
| Preliminary orbit determination | p. 178 |
| Heliocentric and barycentric coordinates | |
| Introduction | p. 184 |
| The motion of the earth | p. 184 |
| Annual parallax | p. 187 |
| Annual aberration | p. 189 |
| Low precision formulae for parallax and aberration | p. 190 |
| Planetary aberration | p. 193 |
| General relativistic light deflection | p. 196 |
| The direction of the null geodesic | p. 200 |
| Relativistic derivation of the apparent place of a star | p. 202 |
| Summary | p. 204 |
| Precession and nutation | |
| Introduction | p. 208 |
| Luni-solar precession | p. 208 |
| Planetary precession | p. 211 |
| General precession | p. 214 |
| Rigorous formulae | p. 217 |
| Rotation matrices | p. 220 |
| Approximate formulae | p. 222 |
| Nutation | p. 225 |
| The effect of nutation on a star's coordinates | p. 230 |
| Time | |
| Astronomical and physical concepts of time | p. 236 |
| Sidereal and solar time | p. 240 |
| Ephemeris and universal time | p. 242 |
| Modern dynamical time-scales | p. 245 |
| The Julian and the Besselian year | p. 249 |
| Ephemeris transit | p. 251 |
| Proper and coordinate time | p. 253 |
| The computation of light-time - radar delays | p. 255 |
| Proper motion and radial velocity | |
| Components of stellar motion | p. 259 |
| Intrinsic changes in proper motion | p. 262 |
| Precessional changes in proper motion | p. 265 |
| Barycentric radial velocity | p. 268 |
| Pulsar timing | p. 271 |
| The red-shift in general relativity | p. 272 |
| Systematic effects in proper motion and radial velocity | p. 276 |
| The cosmological red-shift | p. 279 |
| Mean and apparent coordinates | |
| Terminology | p. 284 |
| The annual and secular variations | p. 286 |
| A star's true place | p. 288 |
| A star's apparent place | p. 290 |
| Vector derivation of a star's apparent place | p. 295 |
| The apparent place of a planet | p. 299 |
| Star catalogues | p. 303 |
| Astrographic plate measurements | |
| Central projection | p. 307 |
| Standard coordinates | p. 310 |
| Centring error | p. 313 |
| Refraction and annual aberration | p. 315 |
| The plate constants | p. 319 |
| Principles of plate reduction | p. 322 |
| The method of dependences | p. 325 |
| Direct use of rectangular coordinates | p. 328 |
| Stellar distances and movements | |
| Some astrophysical background | p. 333 |
| Measurement of parallax and proper motion | p. 339 |
| Distances of nearby stars | p. 342 |
| The solar motion | p. 346 |
| Statistical parallax | p. 350 |
| Galactic coordinates | p. 353 |
| Oort's constants | p. 356 |
| The effect of galactic rotation on proper motions | p. 358 |
| Elements of radio astronomy | |
| Introduction | p. 362 |
| Radio interferometry | p. 366 |
| A radio transit instrument | p. 370 |
| Phase ambiguity | p. 372 |
| North-south interferometer | p. 374 |
| The interferometer of general orientation | p. 378 |
| Polar motion | p. 380 |
| Aperture synthesis | p. 382 |
| Rotational synthesis | p. 385 |
| Radio astrometry | |
| Introduction | p. 389 |
| Twelve-hour connected interferometry | p. 390 |
| Very long baseline interferometry | p. 392 |
| Source directions and baseline vectors | p. 397 |
| Media effects | p. 400 |
| Relativistic effects | p. 405 |
| The radio and stellar reference frames | p. 409 |
| Planetary phenomena and surface coordinates | |
| The apparent motion of an inferior planet | p. 415 |
| The apparent motion of a superior planet | p. 418 |
| Stationary points | p. 420 |
| Planetary phases | p. 422 |
| Planetographic coordinates | p. 425 |
| Planetographic coordinates of a point on the disc | p. 429 |
| Heliographic coordinates | p. 430 |
| Heliographic coordinates of a sunspot | p. 433 |
| Selenographic coordinates | p. 434 |
| Eclipses and occultations | |
| Classification of eclipses | p. 439 |
| Conditions for a lunar eclipse | p. 441 |
| Conditions for a solar eclipse | p. 443 |
| Ecliptic limits | p. 444 |
| Frequency and recurrence of eclipses | p. 448 |
| Besselian elements of a solar eclipse | p. 450 |
| Solar eclipse calculations | p. 453 |
| Eclipse magnitudes | p. 457 |
| Occultations by the moon | p. 459 |
| Binary stars | |
| Introduction | p. 465 |
| Orbital elements of a binary system | p. 467 |
| The Thiele-Innes method | p. 470 |
| The Lehmann-Filhes method | p. 474 |
| The masses of visual binaries | p. 478 |
| Spectroscopic binary masses | p. 481 |
| The binary pulsar | p. 484 |
| Tensor methods | |
| Introduction | p. 491 |
| Tensors | p. 493 |
| The metrical tensor | p. 496 |
| Geodesics | p. 498 |
| Curved spacetimes | p. 499 |
| Astronomical constants | |
| Fundamental constants | p. 502 |
| Planetary data | p. 503 |
| Answers to the numerical problems | |
| References | p. 509 |
| Index | p. 511 |
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