The printed Planetary Ephemeris, though obsolete, is still in use in some parts of the world where the computers and electronic devices are still not widely used or haven’t been made available to the public at large.Ī scientific Ephemeris shows planetary positions’ current overview using the spherical polar coordinate system, a system used by mathematicians and physicians on a variety of applications to plot the trajectory of a moving body.
With the advancement in technology, Ephemeris today is calculated electronically with the help of mathematical models based on the movement of celestial bodies via-a-vis that of the Earth. Such a diary was, therefore, termed as Planetary Ephemeris. As a result, such a tabular compilation would usually last for a day only to be replaced by new values on the following day. These attributes tend to change from time to time with the change in the trajectory of the celestial bodies.
Since ancient times, the current planetary positions on a given date (Grah position or Grah Stithi) have been assigned printed values in a tabular format. Ephemeris meaning in Latin is diary or journal.
