Swiss Ephemeris

[swetha]

An ephemeris (plural: ephemerides) (from the Greek word ephemeros= daily) was, traditionally, a table providing the positions (given in a Cartesian coordinate system, or in right ascension and declination or, for astrologers, in longitude along the zodiacal ecliptic), of the Sun, the Moon, the planets, asteroids or comets in the sky at a given moment in time; the astrological positions are usually given for either noon or midnight depending on the particular ephemeris that is used.

For scientific uses, a modern planetary ephemeris comprises software that generates positions of the planets and often of their satellites, or of asteroids or comets at virtually any time desired by the user.

The Swiss Ephemeris is the new high precision ephemeris developed by Astrodienst, largely based upon the DE406 ephemeris from NASA's JPL. The precision of the Swiss Ephemeris is very high. It is at least as accurate as the Astromical Almanac, the standard planetary and lunar tables astronomers refer to.

source: http://www.astro.com/swisseph/swisseph.htm#_Toc6813644