palEpco

Convert an epoch into the appropriate form - ’ B’ or ’ J’

Converts a Besselian or Julian epoch to a Julian or Besselian epoch.

double palEpco( char k0, char k, double e );

Form of result: ’ B’ =Besselian, ’ J’ =Julian

Form of given epoch: ’ B’ or ’ J’ .

The result is always either equal to or very close to the given epoch E. The routine is required only in applications where punctilious treatment of heterogeneous mixtures of star positions is necessary.
k and k0 are case insensitive. This differes slightly from the Fortran SLA implementation.
k and k0 are not validated. They are interpreted as follows: o If k0 and k are the same the result is e o If k0 is ’ b’ or ’ B’ and k isn’ t the conversion is J to B. o In all other cases, the conversion is B to J.