[dougkeenan]

Saturn in opposition today (0802.23)

[dougkeenan]

Mercury and Venus team up

[dougkeenan]

The BA blog mentioned this event here so I fired up Orrery a few hours ago. With Earth set as center my position on the lunar surface (noted by a cross) is 372M away along the moon's blue line from Earth. Sure enough the pale blue line to Venus continues that line, showing overlap to an observer on Earth (or at least as much as this 2D image can represent).

[n0mad23]

dougkeenan,

I usually don't fall for such blatant displays of self-promotion, but you got me. I've had this one in my "to do" archive folder for a while now, but never got around to installing it. My rationale is I've already got too many things in my modules list, and it's hard to remember to activate and deactivate every time I change scenarios.

Now I see why I should install Orrery. This is really cool! I'm going to as soon as I log off.

Thanks.

[dougkeenan]

Thanks for the kind words! BA, this forum, spaceflight.com - all keep mentioning neat happenings in the sky. Orrery is a simple but illustrative way of looking at them sometimes.

I didn't intend to promote it so much as maintain a diary of events such as today's. Orbiter makes it easy to stage scenarios so logging them made some sense.

[n0mad23]

Originally Posted by dougkeenan

 Thanks for the kind words! BA, this forum, spaceflight.com - all keep mentioning neat happenings in the sky. Orrery is a simple but illustrative way of looking at them sometimes.

I didn't intend to promote it so much as maintain a diary of events such as today's. Orbiter makes it easy to stage scenarios so logging them made some sense.

Honestly I was just giving you a ribbing. I'm afraid my humor comes off as rather dry.

But I followed through, and installed your MFD and had a good look in the last hour as I took the Jupiter III-X into orbit.

This is a really cool MFD. I'm a "give me a telescope and microscope" sort of guy. I want the big picture as well as the details, because I want as much context as possible. It helps me understand things.

This is exactly what I get from Orrery. Thanks for turning me on to it!

[Bullethead]

I like OrreryMFD, but I have a request. Would it be hard to put the orbit paths on there, so that the existing radial lines intersect them where the planets are? It would make the display easier for me to understand .

[dougkeenan]

Drawing paths would be simple enough, it's the math of the actual orbit paths that escapes me. (Not in theory, only in lightweight code.)

Maybe a circular approximation at that point? I wonder how far it would be off. :unknown:

(upon edit)

Here are orbits displayed as circular approximations in the sun centered view. Is that like you were thinking?

[Black dog]

I don't know about anybody else, but I like it. (orbits displayed as circular approximations in the sun centered view).

[dougkeenan]

Good enough, the MFD had a free button left over anyway. I should have the new version ready for d/l later today.

[dougkeenan]

V1.1 with orbit circles

now available

now available

. Just in time too, since according to this article Mars and Saturn come close in the sky soon. (The planet colors don't show up well in these photos but the MFD shows the event pretty well.)

[n0mad23]

Yes!

A fantastic MFD's suddenly gotten better! Thank you Doug.

[dougkeenan]

Thanks for the kind comments you guys.

[Bullethead]

Originally Posted by dougkeenan

 V1.1 with orbit circles now available.

Thanks muchos! That's a big help and makes the MFD much easier to appreciate .

[dougkeenan]

You're very welcome! Good idea. BTW, Universe Today has some beautiful pictures up of today's alignment.