NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Robert H. van Gent
Date: 2023 Jan 29, 12:38 +0000
Hi,
I found the error in my initial posting – I had neglected to account for the light-time effect (i.e. assumed the velocity of light to be infinite).
Apologies for the confusion.
When I was young Solex bikes were also very popular in the Netherlands so the name of Aldo Vitagliano’s software also appeals to me.
In the doc file associated with the software Vitagliano explains that the abbreviation SOLEX was derived from “SOLar system integration by a fast
EXtrapolation method”.
rvg
From: NavList@fer3.com <NavList@fer3.com>
On Behalf Of Antoine Couëtte
Sent: Sunday, 29 January 2023 01:00
To: Gent, R.H. van (Rob) <R.H.vanGent@uu.nl>
Subject: [NavList] Re: Upcoming Planets 2023 close encounters
For Robert and Dave, thanks for your last replies and explanations. All our results fully agree, and that's excellent.
Frank, you asked " Do you know, was this the origin of the name
SOLEX? "
" Solex" was an early if not
the initial author's own acronym he used to name his now celebrated "Solar Experiment" software.
This " Solex " name immediately caught my attention the first time I read it since in France " Solex " used to be a
celebrated ... moped brand .
Frank, you also very rightly mention the classical "Great Circle" computation here. I have at times even used the R⇾P
(Rectangular to Polar) which also works quite well for planets less than a few degrees apart. But for all configurations including bodies far from the Equator, "Great Circle" computation is to be used.
BTW, I watched Venus and Saturn on Jan 22 nd by 17:00 UT, i.e. a few hours ahead of minimum apparent distance. Nice to see them since the day before their distance was significantly greater, and their relative configuration
in the sky was quite different. On the USA East Coast you were ideally located to watch it at a time very close from of minimum distance.
Antoine
