I also used WWW::Mechanize::GZip to handle the download.

#! /usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use feature qw{ say };
use Syntax::Construct qw{ // };

use open ':std', OUT => ':utf8';

use WWW::Mechanize::GZip;
use HTML::TableExtract;

my $site = 'http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/cities.html';
my $mech = 'WWW::Mechanize::GZip'->new;
$mech->get($site);
$mech->follow_link( text => 'Portland OR' );

my $te = 'HTML::TableExtract'->new;
$te->parse($mech->content);
my $table = ($te->tables)[3];
for my $row ($table->rows) {
    say join "\t", map $_ // q(), @$row;
}
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You may want to look into Web::Query which allows you to scrape a html page with jQuery like constructs.

Thank you choroba for your concise yet effective routine. I had to learn quite a bit of syntax just to catch up with it, and I have remaining questions. Maybe I should get those out of the way before moving on. I assume this statement handles exotic characters but by what means is it connected with the output?

use open ':std', OUT => ':utf8';

Also, I couldn't pick my way through all of the join..map syntax here, nor could I herd it into a lexical variable that a bumbling scribe like me can deal with. I littered it with say statements that told me very little about what was going on. The join with the tabs makes it all nicely columnar. The // is this supercool defined $a ? $a : $b syntax, and the q() is a literal quote, but I can't put the whole thing together.

for my $row ($table->rows) {
    say join "\t", map $_ // q(), @$row;
}
[download]

Based on this script I was able to move in closer on the things I'm trying to zero in on:

#! /usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use feature qw{ say };
use Syntax::Construct qw{ // };
use open ':std', OUT => ':utf8';

use WWW::Mechanize::GZip;
use HTML::TableExtract qw(tree);

my $site = 'http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/cities.html';
my $mech = 'WWW::Mechanize::GZip'->new;
$mech->get($site);
$mech->follow_link( text => 'Portland OR' );
my $te = 'HTML::TableExtract'->new;
$te->parse($mech->content);
my $table = ($te->tables)[3];
my $table_tree = $table->tree;
my $table_text = $table_tree->as_text;
say "table text is $table_text";
my $venus = $table_tree->cell(4,1)->as_text;
say "say venus is $venus";
my $jupiter = $table_tree->cell(7,1)->as_text;
say "say jupiter is $jupiter";

my $lub = 2457204.63659; #least upper bound
my $glb = 2457207.63659; #greatest lower bound
__END__
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$ perl tree4.pl
table text is  RightAscensionDeclinationDistance(AU)From 45°31'5"N 122
+°40'33"W:AltitudeAzimuthSun5h 45m 15s+23° 23.5'1.0161.776122.364UpMer
+cury4h 19m 31s+17° 16.1'0.711−14.916135.207SetVenus8h 57m 45s+1
+9° 5.3'0.61730.89886.249UpMoon7h 6m 7s+17° 35.0'61.4 ER10.488104.477U
+pMars5h 40m 59s+24° 0.7'2.5731.626123.509UpJupiter9h 27m 56s+15° 51.6
+'5.92533.91177.612UpSaturn15h 52m 22s−18° 0.9'9.06617.428&#8722
+;38.534UpUranus1h 14m 31s+7° 12.0'20.373−37.278−179.032Se
+tNeptune22h 46m 36s−8° 36.9'29.655−40.890−126.794Se
+tPluto19h 1m 59s−20° 38.6'31.925−11.937−72.601Set
say venus is 8h 57m 45s
say jupiter is 9h 27m 56s
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I could get the right ascension for venus and jupiter by using a regex on the table text or by just using the two values in the cells. The latter might be more concise. What I want to do now is to enter different julian dates to see when this confluence occurs precisely. I have defined a least upper bound time of July 1, as Jupiter has a higher right ascension then. Likewise, I have defined July 4th as a greatest lower bound, as the reverse is the case at this julian date. From here I intend to write a control that will contract these values until they sandwich the event itself.

I tried to get the WWW::Mechanize part of getting the relevant control button pressed and corresponding jd value supplied. The relevant html from the site is here:

<input type="radio" name="date" onclick="0" value="2" /> <a href="/you
+rsky/help/controls.html#Julian">Julian day:</a>
</td>
<td>
<input type="text" name="jd" value="2457189.88345" size="20" onchange=
+"document.request.date[2].checked=true;" />
>
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What needs to happen here (I think), is have onclick go to 1 on the first control and then the same values provided on the second one, except that 'value' should equal a lexical variable of my choice, say $guess.

Alright, well I hope I'm making sense here, and I certainly appreciate the help. Thanks again, choroba.

handles exotic characters but by what means is it connected with the output

See open.

say join "\t", map $_ // q(), @$row;
[download]

Read it from right: get $row, dereference it as an array (@$row). map then takes each of its members and replaces undefined ones with an empty string. The resulting elements are joined by a tab.

لսႽ† ᥲᥒ⚪⟊Ⴙᘓᖇ Ꮅᘓᖇ⎱ Ⴙᥲ𝇋ƙᘓᖇ

This url downloads the data for Portland, OR. The output contains ephemeris too.

wget https://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Yoursky?z=1\&lat=45.5183\&ns=Nor
+th\&lon=122.676\&ew=West
[download]