Planet's Orbits

  Planet's Orbits (for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP) is an accurate digital orrery with a wealth of functionality. The program uses the DE404 ephemeris (accurate for dates between 2000 B.C. and 6000 AD) for the calculation of planetary (except Pluto) and lunar positions. The calculation of the positions of the satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus is done by the various analytic theories given in the Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomial Almanac (1992).The positions of the other objects (asteroids, comets) are calculated by it's osculating orbital elements. Therefore the positions of these objects are accurate only for a small period of time.The most noteworthy functions are date specification (past, future), 2D/3D orbital animation and custom zoom, orbits of 10000 asteroids and comets from different databases, simple database handling and updates, printing, statistic, and information windows.