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A method of determining distance to moon and its zenith angle from a pair of moon-images

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Abstract

An accessible low cost method is proposed using the pair of images of the full Moon at estimated positions of horizon and the zenith to an observer to find the distance of the Moon from the Earth and its zenith angle from an observer on Earth without using any other sophisticated technologies. The proposed method utilizes the phenomenon of the flattening of Moon at horizon and uses the pixel difference of Moon at two perpendicular directions and does not require any other information of capturing device and procedures like camera related parameters, camera angles, hour angle or any other technical devices. Further to validate the results the obtained value of zenith angle is used to find the atmospheric refractive index of the Earth. As the proposed method only requires the pixel difference of the images of the moon at two positions (horizon and zenith), it can also be applied to the open source images to obtain the distance to moon, unknown position of the Moon in terms of zenith angle to the user and the refractive index of atmosphere at a given day and location.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, Belur Math, Howrah, West-Bengal, 711202, India

    Sandeep Kumar Roy & Sayan Chakraborty

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  1. Sandeep Kumar Roy
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  2. Sayan Chakraborty
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Correspondence to Sandeep Kumar Roy.

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Roy, S.K., Chakraborty, S. A method of determining distance to moon and its zenith angle from a pair of moon-images. J Opt (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12596-024-01875-1

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