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I have a simple animation of a spacecraft being gravitationally deflected by Mars and wanted to be able to represent Mars as a red disk, but am having trouble doing this. Here is the code (where the last animate is my attempt at adding a red disk to the animation):

m[2] = 6.4185*10^23;
r[2] = 3.3899*10^6;
G = 6.672*10^-11;
tmax2 = 2.5*86400
xr = 5.74143*10^8
yr = 4.64259*10^7
vxr = -3275.65
vyr = -227.858

soln = NDSolve[{
   x''[t] == -((G  m[2] x[t])/(x[t]^2 + y[t]^2)^(3/2)),
   y''[t] == -((G  m[2] y[t])/(x[t]^2 + y[t]^2)^(3/2)), 

   x[0] == xr, y[0] == yr, x'[0] == vxr, y'[0] == vyr}, {x[t], 
   y[t]}, {t, 0, tmax2} , MaxSteps -> 1000000, 
  Method -> "StiffnessSwitching"]

Show[ParametricPlot[Evaluate[{x[t], y[t]} /. soln], {t, 0, tmax2}, 
  AxesLabel -> {x, y}, PlotStyle -> Automatic, PlotRange -> Full, 
  ImageSize -> Large], Graphics[{Red, Disk[{0, 0}, r[2]]}]]

Animate[ParametricPlot[{{x[t], y[t]}} /. soln /. t -> a, {t, 
   Max[0, a - 10000], a}, AxesLabel -> {x, y}, Axes -> False, 
  ImageSize -> Large], {a, 0, tmax2}, AnimationRate -> 1000]

Animate[Graphics[{Red, 
   Disk[{0, 0}, r[2]]}], [ParametricPlot[{{x[t], y[t]}} /. soln /. 
    t -> a, {t, Max[0, a - 10000], a}, AxesLabel -> {x, y}, 
   Axes -> False, ImageSize -> Large], {a, 0, tmax2}, 
  AnimationRate -> 1000]]

As can be seen below the disk shows up nicely in the "still" version, but I get a syntax error when trying to put the disk in the animated version. Any help would very much be appreciated, thanks very much.

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Look up Epilog and Prolog. $\endgroup$
    – J. M.'s missing motivation ♦
    Commented Jun 9, 2015 at 12:33
  • $\begingroup$ Also take a look at using Show to combine Graphics objects. You already used it for the still version but not for the animated one. But for a simple Disk object using Epilog is probably the best. $\endgroup$
    – Wizard
    Commented Jun 9, 2015 at 13:01
  • $\begingroup$ I tried many combinations of trying to get Show working with Animate and Graphics but could never get it to work for reasons unknown to me. I've had a look at Epilog and Prolog but there don't seem to be any examples using Animate and so I'm unfortunately still getting syntax errors no matter what I try. Syntax seems to be my problem here, as the tools are staring me right in the face (Show and Epilog), which is extremely frustrating $\endgroup$
    – indigoblue
    Commented Jun 9, 2015 at 13:08
  • $\begingroup$ Some more tinkering got it to work, thanks very much guys. $\endgroup$
    – indigoblue
    Commented Jun 9, 2015 at 13:18
  • $\begingroup$ "got it to work" - then, can you answer your own question please? $\endgroup$
    – J. M.'s missing motivation ♦
    Commented Jun 9, 2015 at 13:52

1 Answer 1

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This seemed to get it to work:

Animate[ParametricPlot[{{x[t], y[t]}} /. soln /. t -> a, {t, 
   Max[0, a - 10000], a}, Prolog -> {Red, Disk[{0, 0}, r[2]]}, 
  AxesLabel -> {x, y}, Axes -> False, ImageSize -> Large], {a, 0, 
  tmax2}, AnimationRate -> 1000]
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