Alcyone Ephemeris is an accurate and fast astronomical ephemeris calculator covering the period 3000 BC to AD 3000. It calculates heliocentric, geocentric, and topocentric positions of the Sun (Earth), Moon, planets, minor planets, comets and fixed stars in ecliptical, equatorial, and horizontal coordinates (including angular differences between two bodies), with optional corrections for parallax and refraction; rectangular coordinates, velocity, apparent diameter, magnitude, phase, lunar libration, orbital elements, differences for all of these, and more. In addition Alcyone Ephemeris offers a wealth of functionality: star chart generation, 3D-visualization of heliocentric and planetocentric orbits, plotting ephemeris data (as a function of time or in a parametric plot), searching for specific values, data export (HTML, Excel, Text, CSV, XML), printing, and (PDF-/HTML-/RTF-) report generation. Access to the complete Bright Star Catalogue, calendar conversion, and an astronomical event calculator are available.
The ephemeris calculation is based upon Steve Moshier's analytical ephemeris using trigonometric expansions for the earth and planets and the lunar ephemeris ELP2000-85 of Chapront-Touzé and Chapront for the moon, both adjusted to Jet Propulsion Laboratory's DE404. There are further adjustments in Alcyone Ephemeris, some optional, to JPL's more recent DE406, the most accurate long-term ephemeris. Alcyone Ephemeris is fast. With an Athlon XP 2000+ processor, 100 calculations of geocentric longitude, latitude, and distance for the sun, moon, and all planets take about 2 seconds.
A comprehensive documentation includes tabular and graphic comparisons of calculations with HORIZONS Ephemeris generator . Alcyone Ephemeris is shareware and runs under Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista.