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Latitude Extrema Study

A body at its extreme declination is out of bounds or at its furthest reach, and those turning points are worth dating in their own right. The Latitude Extrema study finds them for the bodies you follow.

The study generates an event each time a selected body reaches a maximum or a minimum of latitude or declination. Each event carries the body's position and motion at the turning point.

Create a Latitude Extrema Study​

To add a Latitude Extrema study to the current workspace:

  1. Click Mundane Studies → Declination Studies on the menu bar.
  2. Click Latitude Extrema in the Declination Studies submenu.

Alternatively, click the Declination Studies drop-down button on the toolbar and select Latitude Extrema from its flyout.

The new study appears at the bottom of the Studies list and is selected automatically, so its settings open immediately. It takes its name from the study type.

What This Study Finds​

A latitude extremum is the moment a body's latitude stops rising and begins to fall, or stops falling and begins to rise. Across the date range, the study tracks each body you check and records the instant of every such turning point, both the maxima and the minima.

Its settings carry an Event Type drop-down, which restricts the study to maxima or to minima, and a single Bodies selection list. The diurnal angles, the lunar axis points and the hypothetical Uranian bodies are not offered in that list, the Uranians because six of the eight have identically zero latitude. See Which Bodies a Study Offers for the full set a study omits.

The Latitude Extrema Study selected in the Studies list with its events generated over at least a 5-year date range.

Events Table Columns​

The events table lists one row per extremum. Several columns are hidden by default, as the table notes. Right-click any column header to show or hide a column, as described in Choose Events Table Columns. The header text of the coordinate columns follows the study's Reference Plane: they read Longitude and Latitude in the ecliptic plane and Right Asc and Declination in the equatorial plane. The table below uses the ecliptic-plane headers.

ColumnDescription
Date TimeDate and time the event perfects, in the application's long date-time format. Always the first column, and it cannot be moved. Visible by default.
Event TypeWhich kind of turning point the event records, a maximum or a minimum. Visible by default.
BodyName of the celestial body. Visible by default.
Body LongitudeThe body's primary coordinate in degrees. Hidden by default.
Body SignThe body's position as degrees, sign and minutes of the zodiac. Visible by default.
Body LatitudeThe body's secondary coordinate in degrees. Visible by default.
Body DistanceThe body's radial distance in astronomical units (AU). Hidden by default.
Body SpeedThe body's speed in degrees per day. Hidden by default.
Event IntervalElapsed time since the previous event in the list. Hidden by default.