mint/app/calendar/planet_position

#Planet positions

Computes planet positions, plus the Earth's Moon, on any given UTC time.

##Usage

Include planet-positions.js (or planet-positions.min.js), then call

var planets = window.lagrange.planet_positions.getPositions(new Date());

An array of objects will be returned, one for each planet, with a Three.js Vector3 as the planet's position. If you also want to receive the planet's velocity as a Vector3, specify a second parameter set to true.

{
	name: 'earth',
	position: Three.Vector3,
	velocity: Three.Vector3
}

Credits

• Planets orbital elements were taken from Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
• I learned about calculating positions from orbital elements by reading these documents by Keith Burnett, Paul Schlyter and E M Standish (JPL).
• David Eagle for orbital calculations of the moon, based on "Lunar Tables and Programs From 4000 B.C. TO A.D. 8000" by Michelle Chapront-Touze and Jean Chapront. See mathworks.com.

More details on La Grange's blog at http://lab.la-grange.ca/en/jsorrery