Questions about the solar system

Hello everybody I have a few questions for a planetarium program that
i am writing. i hope some clever person can help me.

1 How many degrees is the earth kicked back off the ecliptic.

2 How far does the moon / mecury / venus vary off the ecliptic

3 How long exactly does the moon / mecury / venus take to do a full
rotaion of the sun / earth

"Clever person"? Good God almighty! All of this information is in about a
thousand reference books (let alone countless websites). If you don't know
how to look these things up (and think it takes a clever person to do so)
what in the world are you doing writing a planetarium program?

RM


"james" wrote in message
om...
Hello everybody I have a few questions for a planetarium program that
i am writing. i hope some clever person can help me.

1 How many degrees is the earth kicked back off the ecliptic.

2 How far does the moon / mecury / venus vary off the ecliptic

3 How long exactly does the moon / mecury / venus take to do a full
rotaion of the sun / earth

"Clever person"? Good God almighty! All of this information is in about a
thousand reference books (let alone countless websites). If you don't know
how to look these things up (and think it takes a clever person to do so)
what in the world are you doing writing a planetarium program?

RM


"james" wrote in message
om...
Hello everybody I have a few questions for a planetarium program that
i am writing. i hope some clever person can help me.

1 How many degrees is the earth kicked back off the ecliptic.

2 How far does the moon / mecury / venus vary off the ecliptic

3 How long exactly does the moon / mecury / venus take to do a full
rotaion of the sun / earth

james wrote:

Hello everybody I have a few questions for a planetarium program that
i am writing. i hope some clever person can help me.

1 How many degrees is the earth kicked back off the ecliptic.

2 How far does the moon / mecury / venus vary off the ecliptic

3 How long exactly does the moon / mecury / venus take to do a full
rotaion of the sun / earth

What Ron said ...

but you might start by looking at

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planetfact.html.

--
Odysseus

james wrote:

Hello everybody I have a few questions for a planetarium program that
i am writing. i hope some clever person can help me.

1 How many degrees is the earth kicked back off the ecliptic.

2 How far does the moon / mecury / venus vary off the ecliptic

3 How long exactly does the moon / mecury / venus take to do a full
rotaion of the sun / earth

What Ron said ...

but you might start by looking at

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planetfact.html.

--
Odysseus

"james" wrote in message om...

Hello everybody I have a few questions for a planetarium program that
i am writing. i hope some clever person can help me.

1 How many degrees is the earth kicked back off the ecliptic.

2 How far does the moon / mecury / venus vary off the ecliptic

3 How long exactly does the moon / mecury / venus take to do a full
rotaion of the sun / earth

'Lo James --

Some people mistake the Sun's equator as defining the
plane of the ecliptic. Since the ecliptic is actually defined
by the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun, then the
answer to #1 above is zero degrees. And the plane of
Earth's orbit, also called the "ecliptic," is inclined about
seven degrees off the Sun's equator.

The varying you ask about in #2 above is called the
"orbital inclination." The one's you ask for are...

Moon 5 degrees
Mercury 7 degrees
Venus 3.4 degrees

The Moon goes around the Sun just like a planet, always
falling toward the Sun. And it's period is the same as the
Earth's... 365.25 days. And it takes just about one month
to appear to go around the Earth (the Moon never really
goes fully around the Earth, instead making a slightly
scalloped orbital pattern around the Sun just like the Earth
does).

Mercury takes about 88 days to make one orbit around
the Sun, and Venus goes around our star in just about
225 days.

hth

happy days and...
starry starry nights!

--
A Universe of Beauty
Our Hubble often shows,
Let's not forget our duty
To pitch the way it Glows!

Paine Ellsworth

"james" wrote in message om...

Hello everybody I have a few questions for a planetarium program that
i am writing. i hope some clever person can help me.

1 How many degrees is the earth kicked back off the ecliptic.

2 How far does the moon / mecury / venus vary off the ecliptic

3 How long exactly does the moon / mecury / venus take to do a full
rotaion of the sun / earth

'Lo James --

Some people mistake the Sun's equator as defining the
plane of the ecliptic. Since the ecliptic is actually defined
by the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun, then the
answer to #1 above is zero degrees. And the plane of
Earth's orbit, also called the "ecliptic," is inclined about
seven degrees off the Sun's equator.

The varying you ask about in #2 above is called the
"orbital inclination." The one's you ask for are...

Moon 5 degrees
Mercury 7 degrees
Venus 3.4 degrees

The Moon goes around the Sun just like a planet, always
falling toward the Sun. And it's period is the same as the
Earth's... 365.25 days. And it takes just about one month
to appear to go around the Earth (the Moon never really
goes fully around the Earth, instead making a slightly
scalloped orbital pattern around the Sun just like the Earth
does).

Mercury takes about 88 days to make one orbit around
the Sun, and Venus goes around our star in just about
225 days.

hth

happy days and...
starry starry nights!

--
A Universe of Beauty
Our Hubble often shows,
Let's not forget our duty
To pitch the way it Glows!

Paine Ellsworth

In message ,
Painius writes
"james" wrote in message
. com...

Hello everybody I have a few questions for a planetarium program that
i am writing. i hope some clever person can help me.

1 How many degrees is the earth kicked back off the ecliptic.

2 How far does the moon / mecury / venus vary off the ecliptic

3 How long exactly does the moon / mecury / venus take to do a full
rotaion of the sun / earth

'Lo James --

Some people mistake the Sun's equator as defining the
plane of the ecliptic. Since the ecliptic is actually defined
by the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun, then the
answer to #1 above is zero degrees. And the plane of
Earth's orbit, also called the "ecliptic," is inclined about
seven degrees off the Sun's equator.

James could easily find these things for himself (homework, perhaps) but
it gives me a chance to ask if anyone knows _why_ the planets aren't in
the plane of the Sun's equator. Most of them are closer to the ecliptic
than the equator.
--
Rabbit arithmetic - 1 plus 1 equals 10
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

In message ,
Painius writes
"james" wrote in message
. com...

Hello everybody I have a few questions for a planetarium program that
i am writing. i hope some clever person can help me.

1 How many degrees is the earth kicked back off the ecliptic.

2 How far does the moon / mecury / venus vary off the ecliptic

3 How long exactly does the moon / mecury / venus take to do a full
rotaion of the sun / earth

'Lo James --

Some people mistake the Sun's equator as defining the
plane of the ecliptic. Since the ecliptic is actually defined
by the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun, then the
answer to #1 above is zero degrees. And the plane of
Earth's orbit, also called the "ecliptic," is inclined about
seven degrees off the Sun's equator.

James could easily find these things for himself (homework, perhaps) but
it gives me a chance to ask if anyone knows _why_ the planets aren't in
the plane of the Sun's equator. Most of them are closer to the ecliptic
than the equator.
--
Rabbit arithmetic - 1 plus 1 equals 10
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

"Jonathan Silverlight" wrote
in message ...
In message ,
Painius writes
"james" wrote in message
. com...

Hello everybody I have a few questions for a planetarium program that
i am writing. i hope some clever person can help me.

1 How many degrees is the earth kicked back off the ecliptic.

2 How far does the moon / mecury / venus vary off the ecliptic

3 How long exactly does the moon / mecury / venus take to do a full
rotaion of the sun / earth

'Lo James --

Some people mistake the Sun's equator as defining the
plane of the ecliptic. Since the ecliptic is actually defined
by the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun, then the
answer to #1 above is zero degrees. And the plane of
Earth's orbit, also called the "ecliptic," is inclined about
seven degrees off the Sun's equator.

James could easily find these things for himself (homework, perhaps) but
it gives me a chance to ask if anyone knows _why_ the planets aren't in
the plane of the Sun's equator. Most of them are closer to the ecliptic
than the equator.

Probably because of continuing bombardment of the Sun
and planets by massive chunks of matter while planet
formation was ongoing. This would have the effect of
slightly randomizing the angular momentum directions
for all the bodies.