Questions on the astronomical applications of Mathematica.

learn more… | top users | synonyms

2
votes
1answer
86 views

Increasing NDSolve time step size

I recently tried creating a solar system simulation using the "n-body problem" formulation and NDSolve, but have run into a little problem. I've managed to get accurate initial positions and ...
4
votes
1answer
115 views

AstronomicalData and Planetary Heliocentric (x,y,z) Velocity Components

I'm trying to find data on the heliocentric velocities of planets in our solar system and was directed to Mathematica's AstronomicalData in a previous topic. ...
1
vote
0answers
102 views

Solar System Orbital Parameters [duplicate]

I recently made an n-body simulation and thought it would be interesting to try and model it on the interior of our solar system (Sun to Mars), but I cannot find initial conditions for such an ...
16
votes
1answer
408 views

The Orbit and Perigee of the Flamsteed comet

Historical context This year we have the 330-th anniversary of the Battle of Vienna - one of the great formative events of European history, it took place on September 12, 1683. Kara Mustafa, Grand ...
7
votes
2answers
1k views

Creating a simulation of our Solar System

As the title says, my objective is to create a simulation of the motion of the planets in our Solar System using Mathematica. All the theoretical background regarding the equations of motion of ...
12
votes
2answers
306 views

How is AstronomicalData interpreting its date arguments?

It is easy to confirm that the AstronomicalData is not interpreting its arguments as UTC (or "GMT", which is, in any case, ambiguous) dates by verifying that the ...
12
votes
1answer
188 views

Is there a way to get AbsoluteTime to correctly report absolute time differences?

Absolute time supposedly reports the "total number of seconds" between two dates, but it does not. For example because of the leap second applied at 2012-06-30T23:59:60Z ...
5
votes
2answers
199 views
7
votes
2answers
169 views

What do AstronomicalData's “SetTime” and “RiseTime” values refer to?

What astronomical event do AstronomicalData's "NextRiseTime", "NextSetTime", ...
9
votes
1answer
172 views

How do I determine astronomical transit times?

Mathematica, through the "legacy" Scientific Astronomer package, used to have the ability to easily determine accurate transit times of astronomical objects simply, with ...
7
votes
3answers
291 views

Why is AstronomicalData so slow?

I'm having trouble getting some pretty simple functions using AstronomicalData to perform at anywhere near the speed I need them to. For example, I have many ...
10
votes
2answers
453 views

How do I compute sidereal time and JD?

There was once a package that provided a wide range of functions for computing astronomical information. This package now appears to be out of date; but as near as I can tell, many of the useful ...
11
votes
3answers
1k views

Composition: how to make a day and night world map?

Given the following world images: ...
5
votes
2answers
214 views

Why is Neptune missing from AstronomicalData?

An old notebook I've recently started working with has a strange error: Prior to version 8, a figure I generated using Drop[AstronomicalData["Planet"],-1] to ...