solaryears.py

"""
    Author: João Ventura <flatangleweb@gmail.com>
    

    A tropical solar year is the length from spring equinox
    to the following spring equinox. 
    
    This recipe was implemented to reply to a topic opened
    at http://skyscript.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8563
    and shows that the solar year has an amplitude of more
    than 25 minutes, considering the average year of 365.2425
    days. 
    
    To plot the graphics you must have matplotlib installed.

"""

from flatlib.datetime import Datetime
from flatlib.ephem import ephem


def plot(hdiff, title):
    """ Plots the tropical solar length
    by year.
    
    """
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
    years = [elem[0] for elem in hdiff]
    diffs = [elem[1] for elem in hdiff]
    plt.plot(years, diffs)
    plt.ylabel('Distance in minutes')
    plt.xlabel('Year')
    plt.title(title)
    plt.axhline(y=0, c='red')
    plt.show()


# Set the starting year
sYear = 1980

# Get successive spring equinox dates
equinoxes = []
span = 100
for year in range(sYear, sYear + span):
    
    # Get the spring equinox date for the year
    dt = Datetime('%s/01/01' % year, '00:00')
    sr = ephem.nextSolarReturn(dt, 0.00)
    equinoxes.append([year, sr.jd])
    
# Compute successive differences
diffs = []
for i in range(len(equinoxes) - 1):
    year1, jd1 = equinoxes[i]
    year2, jd2 = equinoxes[i+1]
    diffs.append([year1, (jd2 - jd1 - 365.2425) * 24 * 60])
    
print(diffs)
title = 'Solar year length from %s to %s\n' % (sYear , sYear + span)
title+= '(Compared to average year of 365.2425)'
plot(diffs, title)