2022-04-25, 05:00 PM
Dennis,
My software has to be 100% reliable for these things. I will not accept anything else. I haven't taken the time to check the calculations for the main satellites of Saturn beyond eyeballing them in the telescope for maybe a decade, so its time to do a full review. Some of the moons use a polynomial algorithm to predict their position, and this was created twenty years ago. These things are created to fit past observations, but that doesn't mean they will be accurate into the future. Now, I don't know for sure yet that there is a problem with Iapetus, but it there is I'm going to fix it by adopting a different method.
My software has to be 100% reliable for these things. I will not accept anything else. I haven't taken the time to check the calculations for the main satellites of Saturn beyond eyeballing them in the telescope for maybe a decade, so its time to do a full review. Some of the moons use a polynomial algorithm to predict their position, and this was created twenty years ago. These things are created to fit past observations, but that doesn't mean they will be accurate into the future. Now, I don't know for sure yet that there is a problem with Iapetus, but it there is I'm going to fix it by adopting a different method.
Clear skies,
Greg
Head Dude at Skyhound
Greg
Head Dude at Skyhound