Ephemeris
-
chris
- Site Admin
- Posts: 4211
- Joined: 28.01.2002
- With us: 22 years 9 months
- Location: Seattle, Washington, USA
Ephemeris
Falck wrote:Out of curiosity, what ephemeris does Celestia use for interpolating the positions of the planets? Are there any plans to incorporate SPICE files or the JPL DE series ephemerides, if its not already there?
I do plan to modify Celestia so that it can use SPICE data for spacecraft . . . I was supposed to have that done by now, but I haven't found the time. For the positions of the planets, Celestia uses VSOP87 (and Keplerian elements derived from the VSOP87 theory for dates more than a thousand years in the past or future.) I know that the JPL DE ephemerides are more accurate, but the data files are quite large and the basic Celestia package is already 10 megs.
--Chris