A Manual to the Tables

Abstract

In preparation of the technical chapters ahead, the reader is made familiar with the terminology of the multistepped and single-stepped formats of lunar tables. These concepts address the way in which the tables are put to use. They have nothing to do with the way by which their coefficients were fixed, and also one should not associate them with some kind of an iterative scheme. The term ‘multistep’ refers to the fact that the computation of a lunar position, by way of these tables, goes through several steps, whereas ‘single-step’ refers to a computational procedure of only one step. Thus, ‘step’ is the key concept to master in this chapter. After an introduction to the tables and an explanation of the multistep format, an example computation is given. A grasp of the structure of the computation will be found helpful in Chap. 7. Section 4.3, on time and calendar conventions, is of help to anyone who intends to work with the tables, but it is not important for an understanding of the later chapters or of the format.