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Forum » SpaceEngine » General Discussions » Transits (Transits in our solar system)
Transits
HatiDate: Wednesday, 06.06.2012, 05:15 | Message # 1
Observer
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United Kingdom
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Well, I missed the transit of Venus today because of some clouds. I'm annoyed and I'm on space engine. So, I'm wondering. The orbits are accurately modeled, and I'm trying to try catch one in this game. Problematically trial and error just showed me why it only occurs twice every 120 years. It's not likely I'll get it this way.

Is there any way I could find a time where I could see the Venus transit in space engine?
 
TalismanDate: Wednesday, 06.06.2012, 06:36 | Message # 2
Pioneer
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United States
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I naked eye viewed the sun for 1.5 seconds this afternoon, some of the light from venus must have reached my retinas so technical I didn't miss it. cool

Of course you can see them in space engine, using the time control keys.



 
HarbingerDawnDate: Wednesday, 06.06.2012, 07:23 | Message # 3
Cosmic Curator
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Quote (Talisman)
The orbits are accurately modeled, and I'm trying to try catch one in this game.

The orbits in SpaceEngine are somewhat lacking in accuracy for solar system objects, so transits and eclipses will often not happen when and where they should. SpaceEngineer has already said he plans to address this in a future release.

If you want to see Venus backdropped by the sun though, you could always just fly to it and back away from it until you are at Earth's distance and zoom in smile



All forum users, please read this!
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Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM
 
apenpaapDate: Wednesday, 06.06.2012, 12:38 | Message # 4
World Builder
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Antarctica
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Today's Venus transit actually happens in SE, you can easily watch it. I don't know whether the other ones are correct, though, but I think the problem mainly happens with eclipses, so it's probably mainly the Moon's orbit that is a bit wrong.



I occasionally stream at http://www.twitch.tv/magistermystax. Sometimes SE, sometimes other games.
 
HarbingerDawnDate: Wednesday, 06.06.2012, 13:08 | Message # 5
Cosmic Curator
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Quote (apenpaap)
so it's probably mainly the Moon's orbit that is a bit wrong.

All the orbits are off to some degree, though how much of a practical difference it makes will vary from situation to situation. You're right, though, the Moon's orbit is affected by this difference more than other objects. SpaceEngine implements orbits only as simple Keplerian orbits. In reality the orbits differ slightly from this so we need complex models to compute the real orbits of the Moon and planets. Other programs such as Celestia and Orbiter implement one of those complex models, called VSOP87. SpaceEngineer has stated that he will implement this model in a future version.

But as apenpaap said, yesterday's Venus transit was not affected by this minor difference in orbit models, and was represented very well in SpaceEngine.



All forum users, please read this!
My SE mods and addons
Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 970 3584 MB VRAM

Edited by HarbingerDawn - Wednesday, 06.06.2012, 13:58
 
Forum » SpaceEngine » General Discussions » Transits (Transits in our solar system)
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