$ pt 3.ut.pl $ ./3.ut.pl Make query number 1? [Y] :Y row1 is Moon 4h 57m 4s +19° 5.9' 58.6 ER 51.804 −58.490 Up row2 is Pluto 19h 30m 31s −21° 56.1' 34.700 −27.638 85.830 Set Make query number 2? [Y] :Y row1 is Moon 23h 50m 34s −5° 55.0' 63.0 ER −12.242 93.887 Set row2 is Pluto 19h 33m 27s −21° 51.7' 34.609 −64.053 148.382 Set ... row1 is Moon 19h 32m 42s −21° 14.0' 63.1 ER 22.146 16.263 Up row2 is Pluto 19h 32m 43s −21° 52.8' 34.644 21.516 16.112 Up Make query number 18? [Y] :Y row1 is Moon 19h 32m 43s −21° 14.0' 63.1 ER 22.126 16.363 Up row2 is Pluto 19h 32m 43s −21° 52.8' 34.644 21.495 16.214 Up equal seconds is 2458517.329784 ... $ ##

##

equal, while condition fails at julian second 2458489.99538359
19 Moon 19h 28m 49s −21° 17.9' 63.2 ER −42.931 −103.221 Set
19 Pluto 19h 28m 49s −21° 58.6' 34.696 −43.388 −102.531 Set
equal seconds is 2458489.99538359
$ 

##

##

$ cat 3.ut.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.011;

use WWW::Mechanize::GZip;
use HTML::TableExtract;
use Prompt::Timeout;
use open ':std', OUT => ':utf8';
use constant TIMEOUT  => 3;
use constant MAXTRIES => 30;
use Data::Dumper;

### re-set for ultima thule

# declarations, initializations to precede main control
my ( $ra1_seconds, $ra2_seconds, $equal_sec, $equal );

# set time boundaries
my ( $before_bound, $after_bound ) = ( 2458467.0, 2458500);
# 2458487.85873 is while I'm adding comments
#approximately now, give or take 30 days

#oh gosh, I can hardly remember analysis, please forgive
# seeking a "conjunction" in the above dense interval

# hard code 2 objects to look at (rows)
my $e1 = 5;     #moon
my $e2 = 11;    #pluto

## so yeah, a lot of hard-coding here. These values should work

my $column     = 1;             #right ascension
my $filename   = '3.ut.txt';    #output file
my $now_string = localtime;

# start logfile
open( my $jh, '>>', $filename ) or die "Could not open file '$filename' $!";
say $jh "Script executed at $now_string";
my $attempts = 1;
my ( $lower, $upper ) = ( $before_bound, $after_bound );
my $site = 'http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/cities.html';
my $mech = 'WWW::Mechanize::GZip'->new;
$mech->get($site);

## need to be specific about where we are looking from
# You can find a list on the site for someplace near you
$mech->follow_link( text => 'Portland OR' );
$mech->set_fields(qw'date 2');    #julian date specified
my $ref_final;                    #reference to outlive what follows

# determine equality by contracting stochastically

while ( ( ( $attempts == 1 ) || ( $ra2_seconds != $ra1_seconds ) ) ) {

  my $default = ( ( $attempts >= MAXTRIES ) ) ? 'N' : 'Y';
  my $answer = prompt( "Make query number $attempts?", $default, TIMEOUT );
  exit if $answer =~ /^N/i;

  # guess always a value interior to the time interval
  # It lands between 40 and 60 percent, flat random
  # means sims go differently every time
  my $guess = closetohalf( $upper, $lower );

  # feed that guess to the friendly folks at fourmilab
  # get the ephemeris at that time:
  $mech->set_fields( jd => $guess );
  $mech->click_button( value => "Update" );
  my $te = 'HTML::TableExtract'->new;
  $te->parse( $mech->content );
  my $table = ( $te->tables )[3];    #ephemeris table

  # looking to get the whole rows
  # array manipulations
  my $aoa_ref = $table->rows();
  $ref_final = $aoa_ref;
  my $row_ref1 = $table->row($e1);
  my @row1     = @$row_ref1;
  say "row1 is @row1";
  my $row_ref2 = $table->row($e2);
  my @row2     = @$row_ref2;
  say "row2 is @row2";
  my $ra1 = $row1[$column];
  my $ra2 = $row2[$column];

  # create natural numbers from RA
  $ra1_seconds = string_to_second($ra1);
  $ra2_seconds = string_to_second($ra2);

  # the planets win this game when I find a time s.t.
  # their right ascensions are equal.
  # I wouldn't guarantee this during retrogade observance

  if ( $ra2_seconds < $ra1_seconds ) {
    $upper = $guess;
  }
  elsif ( $ra1_seconds < $ra2_seconds ) {
    $lower = $guess;
  }
  else {
    $equal = $guess;
    say $jh "equal, while condition fails at julian second $equal";
    $equal_sec = $ra1_seconds;
  }
  say $jh "$attempts @row1";
  say $jh "$attempts @row2";
  $attempts++;
}

say $jh "equal seconds is $equal";
say "equal seconds is $equal";

print Dumper $ref_final;

sub string_to_second {
  my $string = shift;
  my $return;

  if ( my $success = $string =~ /^(\d*)h\s+(\d*)m\s+(\d*)s$/ ) {
    $return = 3600 * $1 + 60 * $2 + $3;
  }
  else {
  }
  return $return;
}

# I love this one:
sub closetohalf {
  my ( $up, $low ) = @_;
  $low + ( $up - $low ) * ( 0.4 + rand 0.2 );
}

$