I was demonstrating binary stars at an astronomy meeting recently and brought up Rigil Kent. When I set the program to different dates such as 1950, 1900, 2013 intending to show the stars in orbit, the program simulation was grossly in error. If this feature could be added into a later version of the program it would be great. It would also serve as an educational tool as a means of comparing actual observations at the telescope with the simulation on Starry Night. It does appear that for dates close to 2013 the error is only very slight but gets bigger as the time deviates from the present.
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Growflavor I agree with the above request...
acknowledgement: I do also like the addition to SN8 of the current 11 'close' 3D binary systems in SN8 'Favorites' menu
Double star articles often describe a person being able to observe angular separation change over the course of a human lifetime...I would like to be able to see this accurately predicted in SNpp8 both from views from earth as well as being able to 'show orbit' when one visits the multiple star system in 3D using "Go There"
Such estimated models for at least the 'nicest' double stars commonly observed in small telescopes would be a wonderful educational & observing addition to SNpp8 at least a few of the visual doubles with the most complete data estimates in the list the scientific community publishes for their estimated orbital parameters...
current:
Sixth Catalog of Orbits of Visual Binary Stars (catalog updated frequently)
'click on the blue "P" to get the plot of the orbit'
https://ad.usno.navy.mil/wds/orb6/orb6orbits.html
older list (2013):
http://www.usc.es/astro/catalog.htm
CATALOG OF ORBITS AND EPHEMERIDES OF VISUAL DOUBLE STARS
'(OARMA Catalog, OARMAC). At the same time, Worley's orbit catalog became the Fifth Orbit Catalogue (Hartkopf, et al. 2001) including orbits and ephemerides...these two catalogs are complementary and their co-existence enriches the astronomical information in this field...
Thanks!
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