xyz coordinates for planets and moons

Really? Who uses those, except for converting to the traditional data?

I am using these rectangular coordinates to plot the orbits myself.

Actually i'm coding algorithms as per Jean Meeus in Astronomical Algorithms. The book has algorithms for the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn but unfortunately it does not have for Uranus & Neptune. I have already coded those for Jupiter & Saturn. However i've searched the net for explanatory implementation of algorithms for satellites of Uranus & Neptune, but all i can find are codes in either Fortran or C++ which i'm unfamiliar with. I'm coding in either Python or VBA.

However if you guys could come up with the algorithms for Uranus & Neptune to be included in Stellarium that would derive the planetocentric xyz coordinates from the respective orbit theories, viz GUST86 and Almanac Supplement, you could send me the implementation procedure also. I'm not looking for codes but a general format implementation procedure just like the ones presented in the Meeus book.

Thanks

This is a joke?

http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~stellarium/stellarium/trunk/files/head:/src/core/planetsephems/

You can download all of Stellarium code (http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.php/How_to_get_Stellarium%27s_source_code), build yourself, and add this to the coordinate info output for yourself (method Planet::getInfoString()). I don't see the general added value for other users. Sorry, but this is also mostly our spare time! If you want "reference" XYZ coordinates to compare your implementation to, maybe also better see NASA Horizon website.

Alexander,

Thanks for the website, but as i said the codes are all in C++ format which i cannot understand!!

I have already copied out the terms in GUST86 but i don't know how to use them to derive the planetocentric xyz coordinates.

gzotti,

i have stellarium for several years now....but the joy of coding the algorithm to get the same result for any given period by yourself far surpasses the possession of a software made by others...if you can understand me!!

What about scientific article: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/4670524_GUST86_-_An_analytical_ephemeris_of_the_Uranian_satellites ?

And http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1987A&A...188..212L

Alexander,

I got the terms from that paper, but it doesn't explicitly say how to derive planetocentric coordinates