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orb

about

This Java3D applet plots the Sun, visible planets, and stars from the Yale Bright Star Catalog with magnitude greater that 3.5.

The colored lights represent the Sun and visible planets at the time you started this applet.

• The Sun is yellow.
• Mercury is blue.
• Venus is green.
• Mars is red.
• Jupiter is cyan (light blue).
• Saturn is magenta (light purple).

Other similar applets, some with source, are available.

instructions

Use the mouse to rotate the orb. (Zoom with the up/down arrows or by holding down the option/alt key and click-drag the mouse.) You can also use the arrow keys or page-up/page-down keys to navigate.

You may need to click the picture to “focus” the mouse and keyboard onto the picture.

help

If all you see above is a grey rectangle, you may need to install (both) the latest Java (“J2SE v 1.4.2_09 JRE”) and Java3D packages.

• Windows, Linux or Solaris: Java 1.4.2
• Windows or Solaris: Java3D 1.3.1
• Mac OS (Panther or Tiger): Java 1.4.2
• Mac OS Panther 10.3.9 :additional Panther fixes
• Mac OS Panther: Java3D

references

• Paul Schlyter’s “Computing planetary positions - a tutorial with worked examples” is a very good treatment of the matter.
• Stephen R. Schmitt has very useful Javascript source to derive the planet positions.
• Akkana’s Java Star Chart, with Java source.
• Chris Dolan’s Constellation applet. Java source is available.
• dcaley’s Virtual Planetarium. Careful, the link for the applet on his page is webstart enabled. In Safari, you'll open a separate window, after opening the blank page. Close the planetarium window to continue in Safari.