- #1
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- TL;DR Summary
- Looking for planetary data (oppositions, quadratures) for Jupiter and Saturn that spans at least 30 years.
Hi everyone,
I'm looking for a database of planetary events similar to this resource but that has a longer span of time that can be accessed (the site goes back to 2009). I haven't had success in my google searches. Does anybody know where I can find this information?
In particular I am looking for the time intervals between when Jupiter and Saturn are in opposition with the Earth to when they are in quadrature with the earth. This is being used for an introductory high school astronomy course (next academic year) when we discuss the Copernican cosmos. I'd like to use real data rather than quote averages from other sources when I ask students to determine the distances and periods of the planets according to this model. It's also instructive so see the variation in the time intervals to understand why epicycles were used.
I'm finding that the calculations using the data from the link above agree well with the accepted values except for Jupiter and Saturn. My guess is that this is because I initially used data that spans a few years which is a fraction of Saturn's orbital period. And, the data available in the link site only spans a little less than half of Saturn's orbital period.
I haven't yet checked whether using the 13 years for data helps correct the calculations for Jupiter. I initially only used data over about 5 years.
Thanks!
I'm looking for a database of planetary events similar to this resource but that has a longer span of time that can be accessed (the site goes back to 2009). I haven't had success in my google searches. Does anybody know where I can find this information?
In particular I am looking for the time intervals between when Jupiter and Saturn are in opposition with the Earth to when they are in quadrature with the earth. This is being used for an introductory high school astronomy course (next academic year) when we discuss the Copernican cosmos. I'd like to use real data rather than quote averages from other sources when I ask students to determine the distances and periods of the planets according to this model. It's also instructive so see the variation in the time intervals to understand why epicycles were used.
I'm finding that the calculations using the data from the link above agree well with the accepted values except for Jupiter and Saturn. My guess is that this is because I initially used data that spans a few years which is a fraction of Saturn's orbital period. And, the data available in the link site only spans a little less than half of Saturn's orbital period.
I haven't yet checked whether using the 13 years for data helps correct the calculations for Jupiter. I initially only used data over about 5 years.
Thanks!
