News from the World of Astronomy.
Current Astronomical Events
The New 2.6.0 Release with Solar Eclipse Features"
Tidewater has been working toward adding Solar Eclipse features for some time - a tricky task for an application like this one. But we finally have it!! at least for Windows. The Mac version will be a little longer. Sorry guys, but we wanted to get the new release out in time for the big April 8 North American Solar Eclipse.
Learn more about the new features here.
Release 2.5.0 for BOTH WINDOWS AND MacOS!"
Although there are a host of small improvements, additions and bug fixes in this release, the biggest news for 2.5.0 is that is also supports MacOS. We are pleased to support this new platform, especially since it is often used in educational settings.
Starlink Surpasses 5000 Internet Satellites in Orbit"
SpaceX has exceeded 5000 satellites for internet services in low earth orbit and has begun launching their more powerful Gen2-mini Starlink spacecraft. In case you were wondering, the regular Gen-2s don't fit within the Falcon-9 faring, so they have to wait until the giant new SpaceX "Starship" rocket is ready for business. When ready, Starship will be the most powerful rocket ever launched.
The next launch of Starship is currently held up by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service while it evaluates the risk to fish and wildlife of SpaceX's new water deluge system.
ANOTHER 'Green Comet' in 2023"
A previously unknown comet was discovered by amateur Japanese astronomer Hideo Nishimura on Aug. 11, 2023 and named C/2023 P1 Nishimura in his honor. Unlike the previous green comet, which had an orbital period of 50,000 years, this one did not expose any weaknesses in our orbital processing methods. (Whew) C/2023 Nishimura has an orbital period of 435 years and it passes within the orbit of Mercury on it's way around the sun. There is some question of whether it will survive it's solar passage since it will get pretty warm and experience some strong gravitational forces.
You can use Planetarium's 'User Defined Planet' feature to include C/2023 Nishimura in your solar system and sky displays.
- Select SolarSystme View
- Select the SolarSystem View menu item or tool bar tool to open the user-defined planet dialog box.
- Set the following orbital parameters to add the comet.
- Longitude of the Ascending Node: 66.8342
- Argument of Periapsis: 116.2987
- Inclination: 132.4770
- Semimajor Axis: 57.33
- Excentricity: .9958
Mean Anomaly: 0.0003 - NOTE: MA defines the position of comet along its orbit, so this is always changing. This value is for the time September 12, 2023 at roughly 12:01 am. To use this value, first set the time of simulation to 9/12/2023 00:01 and then set this value in the user-defined planet dialog. Afterward, MA for the comet will be adjusted according to the current simulation time.