Terms for using ClockAstronomical

1. Agreement to these Terms

By accessing or using ClockAstronomical, you agree to these Terms and the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the site. You must use ClockAstronomical only in compliance with laws and regulations that apply to you.

ClockAstronomical does not require an account or a purchase. If you use the site on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to accept these Terms for that organization.

2. What ClockAstronomical provides

ClockAstronomical is an informational and educational astronomy visualization. It calculates apparent geocentric tropical ecliptic longitudes for the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, then displays those longitudes on a zodiac wheel and in a degree table. It can animate successive calculated instants and classify Mercury through Pluto as direct or retrograde using a numerical window.

ClockAstronomical is not a local sky map, observatory service, certified ephemeris, horoscope service, birth-chart generator, or source of predictions. It does not calculate visibility, altitude, azimuth, distance, houses, an ascendant, aspects, exact ingress times, or exact station times.

Date and calendar contract

The available range is inclusive from 1 January AD 1000 at 00:00:00.000 UTC through 31 December AD 3000 at 23:59:59.999 UTC. Dates use the proleptic Gregorian calendar, and manual values are interpreted as UTC. Historical dates recorded in another calendar or time convention may require conversion. The browser time model does not represent leap seconds.

3. Accuracy and long-range limitations

ClockAstronomical maintains a 0.1° accuracy target only for dates from 1900 through 2100. This is a product target, not a warranty or certification. Results before 1900 and after 2100 are labelled Extended / approximate and are not covered by a blanket one-degree promise. Displaying two decimal places does not imply 0.01° accuracy.

The extended range was selected after sampled comparisons with NASA/JPL Horizons. Those checks did not test every instant and do not establish a continuous maximum error. Long-range time-scale assumptions, model uncertainty, reference-frame choices, rounding, and differences between coordinate configurations can all affect a comparison. A small angular difference can change a categorical result near a zodiac boundary or retrograde station.

4. Acceptable use

You may use ClockAstronomical for lawful personal, educational, and research purposes. You must not:

• interfere with, disable, overload, probe, or disrupt the site or its hosting infrastructure;
• attempt to bypass security or access controls, or introduce malware or harmful code;
• use automated requests at a volume that unreasonably burdens the service;
• misrepresent ClockAstronomical output as official, certified, observed, or guaranteed ephemeris data;
• remove notices or falsely imply endorsement, partnership, authorship, or affiliation; or
• use the site or its output to violate another person’s rights or applicable law.

Access may be limited or blocked when reasonably necessary to protect the site, its users, or its providers, or to comply with law.

5. Site content and third-party software

The ClockAstronomical name, original site design, explanatory content, and other original materials are protected by applicable intellectual property laws. These Terms permit you to use the site; they do not transfer ownership or grant a right to reproduce, sell, sublicense, or commercially exploit protected site materials except where applicable law or a separate written licence permits it.

ClockAstronomical uses open-source software, including Astronomy Engine. That software remains subject to its own licence terms. References and links to third-party material do not transfer ownership of that material to ClockAstronomical.

6. Availability, changes, and external links

ClockAstronomical may add, remove, correct, suspend, or discontinue features or content. The site may sometimes be unavailable because of maintenance, hosting incidents, network failure, browser incompatibility, or events outside reasonable control. There is no promise that a particular feature, result, shared URL, or date range will remain available forever.

The site may link to resources operated by others. Those services have their own content, availability, terms, and privacy practices. ClockAstronomical does not control and is not responsible for third-party sites merely because they are linked or cited.

7. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, ClockAstronomical is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory. This includes warranties of accuracy, completeness, reliability, availability, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and freedom from errors or harmful components.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, ClockAstronomical and its maintainers, contributors, and service providers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for loss of data, profits, revenue, opportunity, goodwill, or business, arising from or related to the site or an inability to use it. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

8. Changes to these Terms

These Terms may be updated when ClockAstronomical’s features, providers, practices, or legal obligations change. The effective date at the top will be revised when a new version is published. Changes apply prospectively from publication. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to apply to the extent permitted by law.