Welcome to Astral V0.5

Astral is a python module for calculating the times of various aspects of the sun and moon.

It calculates the following

Dawn

The time in the morning when the sun is a specific number of degrees below the horizon.

Sunrise

The time in the morning when the top of the sun breaks the horizon (asuming a location with no obscuring features.)

Solar Noon

The time when the sun is at its highest point.

Sunset

The time in the evening when the sun is about to disappear below the horizon (asuming a location with no obscuring features.)

Dusk

The time in the evening when the sun is a specific number of degrees below the horizon.

Solar Azimuth

The number of degrees clockwise from North at which the sun can be seen

Solar Elevation

The number of degrees up from the horizon at which the sun can be seen

Rahukaalam

“Rahukaalam or the period of Rahu is a certain amount of time every day that is considered inauspicious for any new venture according to Indian astrology”.

Moon Phase

Calculates the phase of the moon for a specified date.

Example

The following example demonstrates the functionality available in the module

>>> import datetime
>>> from astral import Astral

>>> city_name = 'London'

>>> a = Astral()
>>> a.solar_depression = 'civil'

>>> city = a[city_name]

>>> print('Information for %s/%s\n' % (city_name, city.country))
Information for London/England

>>> timezone = city.timezone
>>> print('Timezone: %s' % timezone)
Timezone: Europe/London

>>> print('Latitude: %.02f; Longitude: %.02f\n' % \
>>>     (city.latitude, city.longitude))
Latitude: 51.60; Longitude: 0.08

>>> sun = city.sun(date=datetime.date(2009, 4, 22), local=True)
>>> print('Dawn:    %s' % str(sun['dawn']))
>>> print('Sunrise: %s' % str(sun['sunrise']))
>>> print('Noon:    %s' % str(sun['noon']))
>>> print('Sunset:  %s' % str(sun['sunset']))
>>> print('Dusk:    %s' % str(sun['dusk']))
Dawn:     2009-04-22 05:12:56+01:00
Sunrise:  2009-04-22 05:49:36+01:00
Noon:     2009-04-22 12:58:48+01:00
Sunset:   2009-04-22 20:09:07+01:00
Dusk:     2009-04-22 20:45:52+01:00

Access to the database of cities can be made through the Astral class:

>>> a = Astral()
>>> db = a.citydb
>>> london = db['London']

Timezone groups such as Europe can be accessed via attributes on the database:

>>> a = Astral()
>>> db = a.citydb
>>> europe = db.europe.cities
>>> europe.sort()
>>> europe
['Aberdeen', 'Amsterdam', 'Andorra la Vella', 'Ankara', 'Athens', ...

License

This module is licensed under the terms of the Apache V2.0 license.

Dependencies

Astral has one external dependency on ‘pytz’ which can either be obtained from Sourceforge page or via the easy_install method, whichever is your particular poison.

Installation

When you’ve added the pytz package to install astral unzip the archive to a handy location and execute the standard Python installation method:

python setup.py install

Cities

The module includes location and time zone data for the following cities. The list includes all capital cities plus some from the UK. The list also includes the US state capitals and some other US cities.

Aberdeen, Abu Dhabi, Abuja, Accra, Addis Ababa, Adelaide, Al Jubail, Algiers, Amman, Amsterdam, Andorra la Vella, Ankara, Antananarivo, Apia, Ashgabat, Asmara, Astana, Asuncion, Athens, Baghdad, Baku, Bamako, Bandar Seri Begawan, Bangkok, Bangui, Banjul, Basse-Terre, Basseterre, Beijing, Beirut, Belgrade, Belmopan, Berlin, Bern, Birmingham, Bishkek, Bissau, Bloemfontein, Bogota, Bolton, Bradford, Brasilia, Bratislava, Brazzaville, Bridgetown, Brisbane, Bristol, Brussels, Bucharest, Bucuresti, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Bujumbura, Cairo, Canberra, Cape Town, Caracas, Cardiff, Castries, Cayenne, Charlotte Amalie, Chisinau, Conakry, Copenhagen, Cotonou, Crawley, Dakar, Damascus, Dammam, Dhaka, Dili, Djibouti, Dodoma, Doha, Dublin, Dushanbe, Edinburgh, Fort-de-France, Freetown, Funafuti, Gaborone, George Town, Georgetown, Glasgow, Guatemala, Hanoi, Harare, Havana, Helsinki, Hobart, Honiara, Islamabad, Jakarta, Jerusalem, Jubail, Kabul, Kampala, Kathmandu, Khartoum, Kiev, Kigali, Kingston, Kingstown, Kinshasa, Koror, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, La Paz, Leeds, Leicester, Libreville, Lilongwe, Lima, Lisbon, Liverpool, Ljubljana, Lome, London, Luanda, Lusaka, Luxembourg, Macau, Madinah, Madrid, Makkah, Malabo, Male, Mamoudzou, Managua, Manama, Manchester, Manila, Maputo, Maseru, Masqat, Mbabane, Mecca, Medina, Mexico, Minsk, Mogadishu, Monrovia, Montevideo, Moroni, Moscow, Moskva, N’Djamena, Nairobi, Nassau, New Delhi, Newcastle, Newcastle Upon Time, Niamey, Nicosia, Norwich, Nouakchott, Noumea, Nuku’alofa, Nuuk, Oranjestad, Oslo, Ottawa, Ouagadougou, Oxford, P’yongyang, Pago Pago, Palikir, Panama, Papeete, Paramaribo, Paris, Perth, Phnom Penh, Plymouth, Port Moresby, Port-Vila, Port-au-Prince, Porto-Novo, Portsmouth, Prague, Praia, Pretoria, Quito, Reading, Reykjavik, Riga, Riyadh, Road Town, Rome, Roseau, Saint Pierre, Saipan, San Jose, San Juan, San Marino, San Salvador, Santiago, Santo Domingo, Sao Tome, Sarajevo, Seoul, Sheffield, Skopje, Sofia, Southampton, St. Peter Port, Stanley, Stockholm, Sucre, Suva, Swansea, Swindon, Sydney, T’bilisi, Tallinn, Tarawa, Tashkent, Tegucigalpa, Tehran, Thimphu, Tirane, Torshavn, Tripoli, Tunis, Vaduz, Valletta, Vienna, Vientiane, Vilnius, W. Indies, Warsaw, Washington DC, Wellington, Willemstad, Windhoek, Wolverhampton, Yamoussoukro, Yangon, Yaounde, Yerevan, Zagreb

Thanks

The sun calculations in this module were adapted, for Python, from the following spreadsheet.

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/eap/models/twilight.zip

Which takes its calculations from

http://www.srrb.noaa.gov/highlights/sunrise/azel.html

The moon phase calculation is based on some javascript code from Sky and Telescope magazine

Moon-phase calculation

Roger W. Sinnott, Sky & Telescope, June 16, 2006.

Also to Sphinx for making doc generation an easy thing (not that the writing of the docs is any easier.)

Contact

Simon Kennedy <python@sffjunkie.co.uk>

Version History