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  #1  
Old February 8th 05, 01:34 AM
Phil Hawkins
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Default Planets

Hi All
I notice that at the moment (according to CDC) the sun, moon, venus,
neptune and mercury are all in Capricorn (with uranus coming up behind -
as always :0 )

CDC provides a lot of info on the planets but I have difficulty working
out their relative positions in the system
Forgeting scale and the elliptical orbit, how can I follow the planets
in their orbits?
If I draw circles on a board how do I determine the position of the
planets in relation to the sun at any given time
I'm sure the data in CDC is all I need but which will give me the info?
Thanks for helping the RN
Regards
Phil
  #2  
Old February 8th 05, 01:55 AM
Florian
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If I draw circles on a board how do I determine the position of the=20
planets in relation to the sun at any given time



Hi Phil,

This might help you visualize what's going on...

http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncg...tion?sys=3D-Sf

You can set it for different times and dates to see how all the planets=20
move around the sun.

-Florian
Stargazing.com


  #3  
Old February 8th 05, 02:33 AM
Phil Hawkins
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Florian wrote:
If I draw circles on a board how do I determine the position of the
planets in relation to the sun at any given time




Hi Phil,

This might help you visualize what's going on...

http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncg...action?sys=-Sf

You can set it for different times and dates to see how all the planets
move around the sun.

-Florian
Stargazing.com


Thanks Florian
If I compare the diagram with the data from CDC I will understand it a
lot better, thamks again
Regards
Phil
  #4  
Old February 9th 05, 09:13 PM
canopus56
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Phil Hawkins asked:
If I draw circles on a board how do I determine the position of the


planets in relation to the sun at any given time


You are looking for a planetica view. Planetica views provide useful
graphical representations that supplement planetary ephemerides tables.
Planetica views aid you to visualize favorable viewing times of a
planet in the eclipitc plane, such as during conjunctions and
quadratures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_conjunction
http://www.opencourse.info/astronomy...ets/index.html

There is one French-manufactured physical planetica sold on the web and
in many planetariums that costs around $50:

http://www.scienceartandmore.com/bro...Planetica.html

In addition to the good, free online planetica referenced by Florian,
another online freeware web application is the:

NASA JPL Solar System Space Simulator
http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/

The default simulation view of this online planetica application is the
Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn. There are various drop-down menus
that can be used to alter the default display in planetica views:

For an outerplanet orbit view, use the following settings:
"Show me 'The Solar System' as seen from 'above'.
"I want a field of view of 120' degrees"
"I want the body to take up '60' percent of the image width
"Y orbits Y extra brightness -show spacecraft "

For a mid-range view, use the following settings:
"Show me 'The Solar System' as seen from 'above'.
"I want a field of view of '10' degrees"
"I want the body to take up '100' percent of the image width
"Y orbits Y extra brightness -show spacecraft "

For an inner planet orbit view, use the following settings:
"Show me 'The Solar System' as seen from 'above'.
"I want a field of view of '2' degrees"
"I want the body to take up '100' percent of the image width
"Y orbits Y extra brightness -show spacecraft "

Another useful settings to get a sense of the three-dimensional view of
a planet and the Earth relative to the ecliptic is an Earth-based view.


A sample setting for Venus is:
"Show me 'Venus' as seen from 'Earth'.
"I want a field of view of '100' degrees"
"I want the body to take up '2' percent of the image width
"Y orbits Y extra brightness -show spacecraft "

A sample setting for Mars is:
"Show me 'Mars' as seen from 'Earth'.
"I want a field of view of '90' degrees"
"I want the body to take up '2' percent of the image width
"Y orbits Y extra brightness -show spacecraft "

One drawback of the NASA JPL Solar System Space Simulator is that there
is no option to add constellation figures, which aids in locating where
and when the planet will be visible.

The simulated views provided by the NASA JPL Solar System Space
Simulator are similar those that can be had from the freeware software
Celestia.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/celestia/
http://celestiamotherlode.net/

I did not have have the time to figure out if Cartes du Ciel (CDC) can
be coaxed into a useable planetica view. I'll post in a few days if I
am able to come up with a Cartes setting.

Using the magnifier tool (the "coordinates entry" dialogue), you can
set the Cartes display field-of-view to 270 to 360 degrees.

http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/doc/edoc1.html#coord

This gives a useable Ptolemy or Earth-centered view showing the
movement of the planets and the Sun as they orbit around the Earth
through the constellations. But this view does not show the planet's
proportional distance from the Sun, as is seen in a true planetica
view.

- Peace Canopus56

  #5  
Old February 10th 05, 03:46 PM
Mark HARDAKER
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Default

Best way is by using a product like Starry Night from www.space.com. Trail
version available before you buy. Best bit of s/ware around.


"Phil Hawkins" wrote in message
...
Hi All
I notice that at the moment (according to CDC) the sun, moon, venus,
neptune and mercury are all in Capricorn (with uranus coming up behind -
as always :0 )

CDC provides a lot of info on the planets but I have difficulty working
out their relative positions in the system
Forgeting scale and the elliptical orbit, how can I follow the planets
in their orbits?
If I draw circles on a board how do I determine the position of the
planets in relation to the sun at any given time
I'm sure the data in CDC is all I need but which will give me the info?
Thanks for helping the RN
Regards
Phil



 




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