Sunpath question.
I got (sort off) the tracking thing to work. I still have to work
several problems. First of all, for simplicity sake, I am calculating
everything centered around the Sun (heliocentric). This is showing
the dance of the planets, comets, asteroids and whatever else you
want in the middle but it will be hard to give you anything beyond
our solar system. The second problem is scaling. 3DS won't handle
numbers that large (it's not 3DS's fault, Gary never imagined someone
would actually try to render the universe in 1:1 scale…). Because
everything is real, you obviously can't see everything. I have to be
able to define some scaling and a better way of entering data. I
can't way to get a hold of the IPAS code…
I actually have two "variations" of the main program. In one, I've
added an option to read standard NORAD data files to track simple
objects orbiting around the Earth. This is Geocentric and works
pretty much like the stuff you have. The second one you have to
supply an ASCII file with several data items to localize an object
(Standard Epoch, inclination, mean anomalies, etc.).
This one works in reverse. They are plotted centered at the Sun. Right
now it's a pain to create several DXF path files. I want to be able
to create the objects and their paths all at once. Things I should be
able to do when IPAS R3 arrives. This will allow to define all sorts
of things. Even ballistics (Alec will love this one, even though
Tridents are more likely than a mere .38! Who knows, he may be hired
to reconstitute the apocalypse… <g>).
By the way, just for fun, create a path for the Sun and another for
the moon. Date the thing for July 11 1992 and tell the program you
are in Hawaii. Attach a spot light to the Sun path and an opaque
sphere to the moon. Give them the right proportion (400×400) and run
your very own eclipse! Link a camera to the Sun looking down at the
Earth and see the Eclipse path!