Stellarium out of whack?

[JB80]

Last night I noticed that stellarium seemed out of whack by 15 to 20 minutes with the moon rising. I only ever use it as a rough guide anyway but it is normally close enough that any difference is barely noticeable but last night I wanted to catch the moon rise so I left early and when I got there the moon had already well cleared the horizon.

Now, *in before people say check your location and settings*.

I checked and double checked last night and this morning that all the co-ords, elevation, etc.. where correct and I checked with a couple of major cities and the rise was still off substancially.

Have others had this problem? Is there a fix that I can download?

It was just frustrating that I didn't get the pic I wanted.

[Shibby]

My Stellarium looks ok, I haven't checked it with the real moon but it matches this lunar calendar: Lunar calendar 2011, moonrise time, moonrise calculator 2011. Moonrise, moonset, sunrise, sunset and moon phases as well as eclipse of the moon and the sun can be displayed for 500 AD to 4000 AD (3500 years!)

[themos]

Last time I timed an occultation, I found that calsky had a much better idea of where the moon was than Stellarium (but only by something like 10 seconds).

[Astroegg]

I'm using Stallarium 0.11.0 and checking the moonrise times on timeanddate.com, my version seemed to be in check - certainly not out of sync by as much as 15 to 20 minutes! Obviously there will be slight variations due to exact location, altitude, temperature and pressure...

• If you are higher than the altitude used in calculating moonrise, then the moon will appear to rise earlier than calculated.
  
• If the temperature is colder (e.g. standard 15° is usually used) then the moon will appear to rise earlier due to greater refraction.
  
• It the atmospheric pressure is higher (e.g standard 101.325 pascal) then the moon will appear to rise earlier, again due to increased refraction.
  

The conditions would only affect the moon rise and set times by a matter of seconds - certainly less than a minute.

I think for accuracy, you should use the timings listed in the Astronomical Almanac by the H.M. Nautical Almanac Office in the U.K (The Astronomical Almanac)

[BigTfromNotts]

What is your location set at in Stellarium? If it is set to Paris (default) then that may account for the time discrepancy.

Cheers

Tony

Oops - Just read that you checked your location - please disregard.

[JB80]

Yep, I have checked it all, even changing the various altitude settings and different local co-ords and all the changes it made were slight. I then checked the major cities like London, Paris and Brussels with there predicted times and it was still out on stellarium. For instance in Brussels the Moon rose at 7:53pm but on stellarium it didn't start showing until about 8:10pm.

I only updated stellarium about a month ago too.

[bish]

I've not noticed stellarium being out but my old copy of Starry Night is always out by about half a degree with asteroids.

[martin_h]

This might be silly, but, have you checked the time on the pc?

[Astroegg]

If it is not something simple like a time error with your PC, try checking the ephemeris data stored in the ssystem.ini file (C:\Program Files (x86)\Stellarium\data\)

Check it against an accurate source...

ephemeris.com - Sun to Sedna Ephemeris

HORIZONS System

[studio1one]

It rises much later for me than shown on any star programme because my horizon is quite high. Could it be this?

[Astroegg]

A little about the atmospheric refraction that may be interesting whilst you check those settings... Fabien Chéreau's blog: Atmospheric refraction in Stellarium

[JB80]

If it is not something simple like a time error with your PC, try checking the ephemeris data stored in the ssystem.ini file (C:\Program Files (x86)\Stellarium\data\)

Check it against an accurate source...

ephemeris.com - Sun to Sedna Ephemeris

HORIZONS System

OK, it's not the timing, it' synched with the PC.

And when I go to the ssystem.ini what I get is this but repeated over for each object with it's own details...

[sun]

name = Sun

parent = none

radius = 696000.

halo = false

color = 1.0,0.98,0.97

tex_map = sun.png

tex_halo = NULL

coord_func = sun_special

lighting = false

albedo = -1.

rot_periode = 654.61

rot_obliquity = 7.25

rot_equator_ascending_node = 196.13

Just an example

What part is the data that I need to be comparing? It probably sounds a bit stupid but I'm not sure what I am looking for to be honest.

I should also add I'm fairly sure it's everything that is out not just the moon.

[JB80]

Well, I did the equivilant of hitting it with a hammer. A uninstall and re-install and it has done the trick.

No idea what was off though.

[Astroegg]

Well, I did the equivilant of hitting it with a hammer. A uninstall and re-install and it has done the trick.

No idea what was off though.

The good old "switch it off and back on again" trick! Glad you're back to normal.