- Depending on the epoch, one of three parabolic approximations
is used:
before 979 Stephenson & Morrison's 390 BC to AD 948 model
979 to 1708 Stephenson & Morrison's 948 to 1600 model
after 1708 McCarthy & Babcock's post-1650 model
The breakpoints are chosen to ensure continuity: they occur
at places where the adjacent models give the same answer as
each other.
- The accuracy is modest, with errors of up to 20 sec during
the interval since 1650, rising to perhaps 30 min by 1000 BC.
Comparatively accurate values from AD 1600 are tabulated in
the Astronomical Almanac (see section K8 of the 1995 AA).
- The use of double-precision for both argument and result is
purely for compatibility with other SLALIB time routines.
- The models used are based on a lunar tidal acceleration value
of -26.00 arcsec per century.