online orrery or equivalent

Chums

I'm after a website which gives realtime or daily 3D or equivalent
representations of the sun and where the planets are.


ie I know that Saturn and Venus were visible this evening, but would
like to get my head around exactly where they, and the Earth, were in
relation to each other

M

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:09:35 +0000, Maurice W wrote:
Chums

I'm after a website which gives realtime or daily 3D or equivalent
representations of the sun and where the planets are.


ie I know that Saturn and Venus were visible this evening, but would
like to get my head around exactly where they, and the Earth, were in
relation to each other

M

Not a website, but theres a program for Microsoft called homeplanet that
you can download from http://www.fourmilab.ch/homeplanet/ which is free.
It will give you what you want. Plus the distribution licence is so
enlightened that you can use the output in any way you choose.

Pete

--
.................................................. .........................
.. never trust a man who, when left alone ...... Pete Lynch .
.. in a room with a tea cosy ...... Marlow, England .
.. doesn't try it on (Billy Connolly) .....................................

In uk.sci.astronomy message
, Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:09:35, Maurice W posted:

I'm after a website which gives realtime or daily 3D or equivalent
representations of the sun and where the planets are.

ie I know that Saturn and Venus were visible this evening, but would
like to get my head around exactly where they, and the Earth, were in
relation to each other

http://www.heavens-above.com/planets.asp.

--
(c) John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v6.05 MIME.
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
Astro stuff via astron-1.htm, gravity0.htm ; quotings.htm, pascal.htm, etc.
No Encoding. Quotes before replies. Snip well. Write clearly. Don't Mail News.

On Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:45:49 +0000, Dr J R Stockton
wrote:

In uk.sci.astronomy message
, Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:09:35, Maurice W posted:

I'm after a website which gives realtime or daily 3D or equivalent
representations of the sun and where the planets are.

ie I know that Saturn and Venus were visible this evening, but would
like to get my head around exactly where they, and the Earth, were in
relation to each other

http://www.heavens-above.com/planets.asp.


Thanks for the 2x tips. This latter is just the chappie.

One question, for a newbie : Saturn and Jupiter are relatively close
to Earth at present. Will this make them significantly better to see
in a telescope than when they are right over on the other side of the
system, so to speak.

M

On Mar 16, 8:55 am, Maurice W wrote:
One question, for a newbie : Saturn and Jupiter are relatively close
to Earth at present. Will this make them significantly better to see
in a telescope than when they are right over on the other side of the
system, so to speak.

M

Saturn is nice and high in the evening and Jupiter is lower and much
later, before dawn. If they go on the other side of the solar system,
they would be too close to the Sun (in angle terms) and so they would
be up in the sky while the Sun is there making them hard (!) to spot.

On Mar 16, 1:20 pm, "Themos Tsikas"
wrote:
On Mar 16, 8:55 am, Maurice W wrote:

One question, for a newbie : Saturn and Jupiter are relatively close
to Earth at present. Will this make them significantly better to see
in a telescope than when they are right over on the other side of the
system, so to speak.

M

Saturn is nice and high in the evening and Jupiter is lower and much
later, before dawn. If they go on the other side of the solar system,
they would be too close to the Sun (in angle terms) and so they would
be up in the sky while the Sun is there making them hard (!) to spot.

Here are the most spectacular images in astronomy as an affirmation of
the original Copernican insight.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...2000_tezel.gif

That is actual time lapse footage of the faster Earth overtaking the
slower forward moving Jupiter and the even slower Saturn in our and
their common orbital motion around the central Sun.

When you are seeing Jupiter and Saturn " close to the Sun " it shows
little appreciation of heliocentricity and the enormous stride the
Copernican insight actually is.

Of course you have 3 centuries of empiricism working against you or
rather for you if you think astronomy is simply a magnification
exercise -

" For to the earth planetary motions appear sometimes direct,
sometimes
stationary, nay, and sometimes retrograde. But from the sun they are
always seen direct," Newton

In uk.sci.astronomy message
, Fri, 16 Mar 2007 08:55:09, Maurice W posted:

One question, for a newbie : Saturn and Jupiter are relatively close
to Earth at present. Will this make them significantly better to see
in a telescope than when they are right over on the other side of the
system, so to speak.

To a first approximation :
The distance to Mars is 1.5 AU varying by 1 AU.
The distance to Jupiter is 5 AU varying by 1 AU.
The distance to Saturn is 10 AU varying by 1 AU.

The consequent change in angular diameter is not great for the Giants.

Much more important is that, at their nearest, they are seen during the
night; but at their farthest they are up during the day - with minor
correction for variation of day-length.

Inner planets are best seen when they are a little nearer than at
quadrature.

From Mars, the Moon should be visible by eye as a separate object.
From Earth, the angular diameter of the Jovian system is larger than
that of the Moon.

--
(c) John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v6.05 IE 6.
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - w. FAQish topics, links, acronyms
PAS EXE etc : URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/programs/ - see 00index.htm
Dates - miscdate.htm moredate.htm js-dates.htm pas-time.htm critdate.htm etc.