VIII.1. Basic concepts

This section of the package is intended for visualizing orbits of minor planets in space as well as their orbital motion.

It is possible to specify up to three minor planets simultaneously. Their motion is exhibited against background of orbital motion of the major planets.

All computations in the section are fulfilled by the formulae of unperturbed motion, so that computed positions of objects for the epochs far from present can differ markedly from reality.

There is possibility to change the scale of picture, position of observer and initial epoch. In case the picture is constructed for only one minor planet, it is possible to show the line of nodes of minor planet on ecliptic plane and to mark off the part of orbital plane above ecliptic.

The coordinate axes X, Y, Z indicated in the picture correspond to rectangular ecliptic coordinates, X axis being directed to the vernal equinox, Z axis — to the North pole of ecliptic.

At the top left of the picture the moment of time corresponding to the positions of planets in the picture is shown. At the bottom of window the ecliptic coordinates, the longitude and latitude of observer are shown as well as scale of the picture (for simplicity, the length of any of the axes X, Y, Z, as indicated in the picture, expressed in astronomical units is taken for the scale; actually, the scale is inversely proportional to shown number).