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Author Topic: [SOLVED] How to align moons to a planet's equator?  (Read 4803 times)

SyzygyΣE

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[SOLVED] How to align moons to a planet's equator?
« on: April 15, 2017, 07:45:31 PM »
This question is kind of specific and not easy to explain what exactly it is I wish to do, but I will try to convey it.

A number of moons coalesce out of a disk that is aligned to the equator/tilt of a planet and hence their orbits are in a similar plane most of the time. Essentially, what I want to do is align a planet's moons into the same plane as its rings. However, not all planets have rings, and it is hard to achieve this alignment unless I first create a ring and trial-and-error my way through until the difference between the planes is small. Is there a way to do this that does not involve such a long process, especially if I am working with multiple moons?
« Last Edit: May 02, 2017, 08:37:18 PM by SyzygyΣE »

DenisineD

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Re: How to align moons to a planet's equator?
« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2017, 12:20:41 PM »
I did suggest it to them. Just like you place a planet around a star, it would align to the equatorial plane....then after you could play with orbital parameters...but i don t know when they will implement it.

tesco

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Re: How to align moons to a planet's equator?
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2017, 02:30:53 AM »
I swear you can change the angle in the orbit settings

SyzygyΣE

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Re: How to align moons to a planet's equator?
« Reply #3 on: April 29, 2017, 08:11:29 PM »
I swear you can change the angle in the orbit settings

You can, but it involves a lot of manual adjustment to find the right angle. Placing a lot of moons and manually aligning them does become tedious, so I was looking for a way to cut down on the complexity.

Jar

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Re: How to align moons to a planet's equator?
« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2017, 11:43:52 AM »
This is far from a perfect solution, but maybe it's helpful: When adding rings, you can adjust the Advanced Settings on a preset to add Moons instead of ring particles. Then perhaps you could adjust semi-major axis and other orbital properties and also mass, radius, etc, to get them to your liking.

Hover over a ring preset, click the pencil icon, then enable Bodies instead of Particles.

Here's a little GIF of how to do it:

SyzygyΣE

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Re: How to align moons to a planet's equator?
« Reply #5 on: May 02, 2017, 08:36:59 PM »
This is far from a perfect solution, but maybe it's helpful: When adding rings, you can adjust the Advanced Settings on a preset to add Moons instead of ring particles. Then perhaps you could adjust semi-major axis and other orbital properties and also mass, radius, etc, to get them to your liking.

Hover over a ring preset, click the pencil icon, then enable Bodies instead of Particles.

Here's a little GIF of how to do it:

Oh, I see. Thank you. That will do just fine. ;D

DenisineD

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Re: [SOLVED] How to align moons to a planet's equator?
« Reply #6 on: May 04, 2017, 09:31:55 AM »
Nice, i was always adding a ring. I ll try this instead