Blog Week 1 - Direction

The first decision that I need to make in undertaking this project is which direction I would like to take the project in.

The coding language I have settled on is C++. Programming in this language means I can interact with OpenGL far easier than I could in other languages, such as Java. The orrery program should allow the user to view the planets orbiting the Sun initially from the furthest point out, with the option to zoom and view the other planets. Intial timescale should relate to a day passing every second, but the user will have the option to increase this in order to see the planets orbit at a higher speed. 

I am unsure yet as to how many moons I will include in this program. Initially I had thought to include only moons with a radius greater than 1000km - this gives me 16 planetary bodies in the system:

• The Sun
• Mercury
• Venus
• The Earth
• The Moon 
•  Mars
• Jupiter
• Io
• Europa
• Ganymede
• Callisto
• Saturn
• Titan
• Uranus
• Neptune
• Triton

This means that none of Mars' or Uranus' moons and only one of Saturn's and Neptune's would be included. This is something I will need to discuss further with my supervisor before making a cast iron decision. I do not think that the dwarf planets (such as Pluto) will be included, but as I say this is something I need to discuss and return to.


The following is a list of programs that I intend to use during this project:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 - for C++ programming
• Autodesk 3Ds Max 2011 - for modelling of planets etc
• Microsoft Word 2010 - any necessary word processing
• Adobe Photoshop CS5 - texture editing etc

I will be using this blog to keep track of any links with useful information that I feel may prove useful in the future of the project. Here are a few that I have come across during my intial research this week:

http://nineplanets.org/ - comprehensive information site on the eight planets (despite the name), their moon, dwarf planets, and various other small bodies in the solar system.


http://star.arm.ac.uk/~dja/planets.html - orbital positions of the planets, dating from January 2000 to projected positons in December 2019.

http://www.etsu.edu/physics/etsuobs/starprty/22099dgl/planalign.htm - information on Planetary aligments. I had initially thought that a "planetary alignment" would make a perfect starting time for the program, yet this seems more complex than I had first realised.

http://www.easytorecall.co.uk/orrery_simulation.htm - A very basic Javascript 2D digital orrery. Shows orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars and their moons around the Sun.

http://www.gifford.co.uk/~principia/orrery.htm - Another very simple digital orrery. Shows all planetary orbits, but no moons. Also shows current position of planets.