PyEphem Scientific-grade astronomical computations for the Python programming language
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find parse compute astronomic computation find planet orbit parser

PyEphem Description

Scientific-grade astronomical computations for the Python programming language Given a date and location on the Earth’s surface, PyEphem can compute the positions of the Sun and Moon, of the planets and their moons, and of any asteroids, comets, or earth satellites whose orbital elements the user can provide. Additional functions are provided to compute the angular separation between two objects in the sky, to determine the constellation in which an object lies, and to find the times at which an object rises, transits, and sets on a particular day.The numerical routines that lie behind PyEphem are those from the wonderful XEphem astronomy application by Elwood Downey. Here are some key features of "PyEphem": Find where a planet, comet, or asteroid is in the sky: · High-precision orbital routines are provdied for the Moon, Sun, planets, and the major planet moons. · The user can supply the orbital elements of a comet, asteroid, or Earth-orbiting satellite, and have its location computed. · The positions of 94 bright stars come built-in, and the user can create further fixed objects as needed for their calculations. Determine where in the sky an object appears for a particular observer: · The user can supply the longitude, latitude, and altitude of the location from which they will be observing. · For convenience, a small database of longitudes and latitudes for 122 world cities is included. · For specified weather conditions (temperature and pressure), PyEphem will compensate for atmospheric refraction by adjusting the positions of bodies near the horizon. · Compute when a body will rise, transit overhead, and set from a particular location. · Parse and use orbital data in either the traditional XEphem file format, or the standard TLE format used for tracking Earth-orbiting satellites. · Determine the dates of the equinoxes and solstices. · Compute the dates of the various phases of the Moon. · Convert from the Greenwich Time (more precisely, Ephemeris Time) which PyEphem uses to the local time of the user. · Convert positions between the equatorial, ecliptic, and galactic coordinate systems. · Determine on which page of the Uranometria or the Millennium Star Atlas a particular star should appear. · Return the Julian Date corresponding to any calendar date. What's New in This Release: · Added a new next_pass() method to Observer that searches for when a satellite next rises, culminates, and sets. · Added a compute_pressure() method to Observer which computes the standard atmospheric pressure at the observer’s current elevation. This function now gets called automatically on new city() objects before they are returned to the user. · Corrected the altitude of San Francisco as returned by city(). · Improved the copyright message so that two more authors are credited.

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