Planets Orbits description
An accurate digital orrery with a wealth of functionality.

Planet's Orbits is in fact an accurate digital orrery with a wealth of functionality. Planet's Orbits uses the DE404 ephemeris (accurate for dates between 2000 B.C. and 6000 AD) for the calculation of planetary (except Pluto) and lunar positions.

The calculation of the positions of the satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus is done by the various analytic theories given in the Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomial Almanac (1992).

The positions of the other objects (asteroids, comets) are calculated by it's osculating orbital elements. Therefore the positions of these objects are accurate only for a small period of time.

The most noteworthy functions are date specification (past, future), 2D/3D orbital animation and custom zoom, orbits of 10000+ asteroids and comets from different databases, simple database handling and updates, printing, statistic, and information windows.

Here are some key features of "Planets Orbits":

· shows the positions and orbits of the planets, satellites, asteroids and comets
· 2D or 3D plot with custom zoom (0.003 ... 70 AU) and rotation (in 3D-mode)
· different co-ordinate grid modes with selectable origin (heliocentric or planetocentric)
· rotary axes and directions of the planets and of the sun
· lines of nodes
· positions of the apocenters and pericenters of the orbits
· monitor function to display different properties of an object (position, orbital elements, orbital speed, angular distances)
· real time function
· animation
· time calculations
· shows user defined lines (planet-planet, planet-sun)
· reads orbital elements of asteroids and comets from databases (dBase or Paradox)
· print function
· export as graphic file (PNG or BMP format)
· objects database functions:
- object seeking (by name)
- sorting the the objects (by name, designation, semi major axis, eccentricity, inclination, classification)
- easy import of asteroid and comet data (optimized for the data of the Minor Planet Center)
- database deletition and creation


Limitations:

· 30 days trial