#1: It's being worked on.
#2: The moons look the same on my system using either v1.5.0pre5 or v1.4.1 final. Check your ambient light setting. I suspect it has been turned up. Those moons look fine to me when the ambient light level is set to 0. Type { and } to change it (shift-[ and shift-]).
#3: Yup, you're right, but...
that's a defect in the now-obsolete Nix-Hydra Addon triggering a bug in Celestia.
The Nix-Hydra Addon needs to be modified so it'll work correctly with the new orbital definition for the Pluto-Charon system. The moons should be orbiting around the barycenter of the Pluto-Charon system, not around Pluto. Change the lines
"Hydra" "Sol/Pluto" # (IAUC 8625)
and
"Nix" "Sol/Pluto" # (IAUC 8625)
so they look like
"Hydra" "Sol/Pluto-Charon" # (IAUC 8625)
and
"Nix" "Sol/Pluto-Charon" # (IAUC 8625)
Then the orbital paths will be drawn correctly.
But here are fully updated parameters obtained from Horizons just now:
Code: Select all
# JDCT Epoch Julian Date, Coordinate Time
# EC Eccentricity, e
# QR Periapsis distance, q (km)
# IN Inclination w.r.t xy-plane, i (degrees)
# OM Longitude of Ascending Node, OMEGA, (degrees)
# W Argument of Perifocus, w (degrees)
# Tp Time of periapsis (Julian day number)
# N Mean motion, n (degrees/day)
# MA Mean anomaly, M (degrees)
# TA True anomaly, nu (degrees)
# A Semi-major axis, a (km)
# AD Apoapsis distance (km)
# PR Orbital period (day)
# parameters obtained from Horizons on 24 Dec 2007.
#2454459.416666667 = A.D. 2007-Dec-24 22:00:00.0000 (CT)
# EC= 1.256179029268478E-01 QR= 6.494997185555540E+04 IN= 1.128384058069160E+02
# OM= 2.271892037431778E+02 W = 3.556298167009237E+02 Tp= 2454459.764924064744
# N = 7.225538769525140E+00 MA= 3.574836526663564E+02 TA= 3.567351611932448E+02
# A = 7.428099462805170E+04 AD= 8.361201740054801E+04 PR= 4.982327428902012E+01
"Hydra" "Sol/Pluto-Charon"
{
Texture "bianca.jpg"
Mesh "asteroid.cms"
Radius 70 # ~140 km diameter for 15% albedo
InfoURL "http://www.boulder.swri.edu/plutonews/"
EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 49.82
SemiMajorAxis 74280
Eccentricity 0.125
AscendingNode 227.2
ArgOfPericenter 355.6
Inclination 112.8
MeanAnomaly 357.5
Epoch 2454459.4167
}
Albedo 0.15 # estimate, based on KBOs
}
#2454459.416666667 = A.D. 2007-Dec-24 22:00:00.0000 (CT)
# EC= 1.302717734201956E-01 QR= 4.880730628797963E+04 IN= 1.129470771636497E+02
# OM= 2.275705022974111E+02 W = 2.040627103329986E+02 Tp= 2454459.588568269275
# N = 1.100360241326909E+01 MA= 3.581084631101382E+02 TA= 3.575208678819746E+02
# A = 5.611788234114669E+04 AD= 6.342845839431375E+04 PR= 3.271655831238331E+01
"Nix" "Sol/Pluto-Charon"
{
Texture "bianca.jpg"
Mesh "pandora.cmod"
Radius 70 # ~140 km diameter for 15% albedo
InfoURL "http://www.boulder.swri.edu/plutonews/"
EllipticalOrbit
{
Period 32.72
SemiMajorAxis 56117
Eccentricity 0.1303
AscendingNode 227.6
ArgOfPericenter 204.1
Inclination 112.9
MeanAnomaly 358.1
Epoch 2454459.4167
}
Albedo 0.15 # estimate, based on KBOs
}
