Ephemeris data

[phinehas]

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[Camacha]

I think I would like the ability to set the planets to their current position

[Plutonium]

For example for me terrestrial concepts, processes and climate are much more important than Ephemeris data.
There are tons of software that can predict the correct orbits of what ever star you want but currently there is a complete lack of consumer grade software that can model terrestrial processes and climate.

[phinehas]

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[Plutonium]

Well, it is now a Universe simulator and saying that it is still a gravity simulator greatly undermines the capabilities of the software even at this alpha stage.

Teaching environments are different, I'm not a full time teacher but I do lectures almost regularly. And they happen to be about terrestrial processes many of them have direct connections to the climates. But unlike astronomy I cannot even show that rigid "what happened and what should happen" part. We heave to heavily relay on pictures, drawings and etc. Same story with plate tectonics- lots of data but no decent software (the existing ones are like from 60s and still Zero simulation options).

But I do agree with you that US2 has enormous power which is kind of artificially limited.
A more expensive "Pro" version with more advanced tools and less game-ish features can be one solution (off course without that Steam crap).

[im4space]

I think I would like the ability to set the planets to their current position

I ask Dan to add this over 4 years ago.

[Dan Dixon]

Unlike the original Universe Sandbox that read in data from a list of positions and velocities taken from NASA's ephemeris system Horizon... Universe Sandbox ² uses a simple ephemeris system for spawning the Solar System and is already being initialized with a specific date.

We're working on UI improvements that will allow the user to set the starting date before loading the simulation. This involves adding starting options for some simulation, much like you can adjust the presets for choreographies or collisions.

No promises for when we'll add this exactly... but we'll do this in one of the upcoming updates.

[phinehas]

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[im4space]

Alpha 12 Added YEAR-MONTH-DAY date to Solar System-based simulations and Encounters
You can find the date in the lower left corner

To set the starting date use Create → Encounters

For example start at Home → Create → Encounters → BH m=1 sun on Plane → edit (click on pen) → set the Date → turn Off Include Rogue Body → change Rate to .000000772 → Create

Now you have the Solar System running in real time.

Also even though the Date field doesn't show the time, it can be added.

[phinehas]

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[Dan Dixon]

I've added a task for the team to check the dates you suggest. Sorry it's not working 100% yet.

[phinehas]

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[phinehas]

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