Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 August 2017
Complete ephemerides of the moon and the four inner planets could be created solely from ranging data alone. Such ephemerides would then be independent from any outside astronomical reference system, and, therefore, would define their own unique reference frame. In fact, this is nearly the case with present-day ephemerides; the accuracy of the ranging data tends to dominate most of the least squares adjustment.
This paper outlines the process of creating the lunar and planetary ephemerides along with the orientation of the ephemerides onto the dynamical equinox. The resulting accuracies of these processes are given and a number of uses for the ephemerides are highlighted.