Lunar Theory - Applications of Lunar Theory

Applications of Lunar Theory

Applications of lunar theory have included the following:-

• In the eighteenth century, comparison between lunar theory and observation was used to test Newton's law of universal gravitation by the motion of the lunar apogee.
• In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, navigational tables based on lunar theory, initially in the Nautical Almanac, were much used for the determination of longitude at sea by the method of lunar distances.
• In the very early twentieth century, comparison between lunar theory and observation was used in another test of gravitational theory, to test (and rule out) Simon Newcomb's suggestion that a well-known discrepancy in the motion of the perihelion of Mercury might be explained by a fractional adjustment of the power -2 in Newton's inverse square law of gravitation (the discrepancy was later successfully explained by the general theory of relativity).
• In the mid-twentieth century, before the development of atomic clocks, lunar theory and observation were used in combination to implement an astronomical time scale (ephemeris time) free of the irregularities of mean solar time.
• In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, modern developments of lunar theory are being used, in conjunction with high-precision observations, to test the exactness of physical relationships associated with the general theory of relativity, including the strong equivalence principle, relativistic gravitation, geodetic precession, and the constancy of the gravitational constant.
• Position of the Moon can be used along with position of Sun, bright planets and stars for navigation of ship or aircraft, when modern methods (such as GPS) are not available.