I love that book. I wish I could sit around with my TI-85 and hack out various coordinates. Meeus is the master of that whole realm. Also, you can get the algorithms in C++ binaries.

I used to do a lot of astronomy. It was fun converting things between Alt-Az and RA-Dec just to see how accurate it could get.

Then came the light and chaos to Mt. Pinos . . . .

On the other hand, for amateur astronomers, I have the perfect dark sky spot for any time of year. The Carrizo Plain is incredible and has a lot less atmospheric disturbance as it is low and in a bit of a valley. When I was there last April the sky was better than Mt. Pinos. (If you're a CA local, you probably know about Mt. Pinos.)