Moons of Jupiter

Stellaferox

Active Member
Licensed User
Moons of Jupiter - UPDATED...

Hi All,

For those who might need an anstronomical application: this is a little app which shows the position of the 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter in front view and polar view on any chosen date or time. The binocular checkbox displays the moons normal North-South if checked and upside down if not checked with (for use with a telescope). The app has no helpfunction (yet) but explains itself. The yellow resetbutton resets to the time now. Changing the date or time and then pushing the calcbutton calculates the positions and displays the configuration.
The playbuttons moves the time forward or backward. The = button stops the animation. I deliberately didnot use imagebuttons for this to keep the code simple and adjustable for those who want to change it.
The names of the moons:
I = Io
E = Europa
G = Ganymedes
C = Callisto
Have fun!
Marc

PS: The application is updated as promised a few weeks ago.
 

Attachments

  • JupMoons.sbp
    12.3 KB · Views: 427
Last edited:

Simontelescopium

Member
Licensed User
Nice, I did something like this when I was using visual basic a few years ago for my old IPAQ and have been meaning to dust off the code and convert to B4ppc (which graduated to) I don't think I'll bother now! :)

CMHAS - SOFTWARE_JupView

I personally prefer small single purpose programs like this to large bulky programs that try to do everything.

Have you thought about adding transit and eclipse events and GRS transit times?

Simon.
 
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mjcoon

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
... this is a little app which shows the position of the 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter in front view and polar view on any chosen date or time.

I've been meaning to write something like that too and didn't make much progress.

So I'd like to contribute an icon for it...

Mike.
 

Attachments

  • JupMoons.ico.zip
    734 bytes · Views: 357

Stellaferox

Active Member
Licensed User
Hi All,

Thanks all.

@Simon: I like your program too. Mine was purely written for use with my telescope. I have a few ideas to include such as the transit and eclipse events you suggested and a night view. Also I'd like to improve on the accuracy in the future with more sophisticated algorhitms.

@mjcoon: thanks for your icon. I use it on my laptop now.

Marc
 

mjcoon

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
@mjcoon: thanks for your icon. I use it on my laptop now.

Welcome; I have to have an icon because I've put it in my "Today" screen via "Launcher" which only shows icons.

I'm not sure how the animation is supposed to work (haven't studied the code yet). Maybe it has a bug because it seems to leap about with different increments or decrements (I'm only using "<" and ">", not "<<" or ">>".) For instance it leaps to the early hours of tomorrow (from early evening today) and then advances by fractions of an hour. There's room on the screen to show what the [in|de]crement currently is...

Mike.
 

Stellaferox

Active Member
Licensed User
Hi mjcoon,

Yes I noticed that too and corrected the problem. In the Timer_Tickloop the time wasn't handled right. Also I corrected a few other bugs. The problem right now is that I cannot upload the file because the screen on my laptop is broken and is out of order for the next three weeks. As soon as it is back I will upload the latest file.
thanks
Marc
 

Stellaferox

Active Member
Licensed User
Hi All,

Tha application is updated like I promised a few weeks ago. The new version is in the 1st post. Smoother graphics, a few timeconversionbugs and a new algorithm were implemented.
Marc
 

mjcoon

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
... Now is not a great time to view it [Jupiter] though

No, I find that even on clear nights Jupiter has vanished into the horizon murk before it's dark enough to see. When will it be "back"? And I suppose that will be in the East, which isn't good for me.

To Stellaferox: thanks for the update.

Mike.
 

Stellaferox

Active Member
Licensed User
Hi Mike,

I can give you an exact answer on the question when Jupiter will be back if I can consult my starcharts tomorrownight but meanwhile you can download an earlier program of mine which is called Planetarium and let it run in forward mode. When the angle between Earth and Jupiter becomes less then 100-120 degs appr. the date tells you from when it will be visible in the east early before sunrise. It also tells you that Saturn and Mars are nice objects right now!

grtz,

Marc
 

Simontelescopium

Member
Licensed User
Jupiter becomes a morning object in early march, will be rising by midnight in June and by September is rising at sun set. Mars is around at the moment though and in a small (ish) telescope you should be able to see some features with high magnifications on nights of steady seeing :)

Have a look at CMHAS - home
 

mjcoon

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
Tha application is updated like I promised a few weeks ago. The new version is in the 1st post. Smoother graphics, a few timeconversionbugs and a new algorithm were implemented.
Marc

I suddenly took it into my head to make a version for VGA size on my desktop (or for that matter, larger). But it fails, running under IDE, at the first frmMain.FPolygon(), saying "Object reference not set...". This is the case for the downloaded version too (see attachment).

Rather than bash my head against this puzzle (possibly due to using V6.90) I thought I would eliminate the ArrayLists, which aren't really needed because there are always 37 elements, and use structures instead. This should be more efficient, though I don't expect to see the difference. It did cure the problem, though!

Mike.
 

Attachments

  • crash-screen.JPG
    crash-screen.JPG
    16.7 KB · Views: 374

alfcen

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
Hi Stellaferox,

Ever since I changed to Android I haven't touched B4PPC.
A few years ago, I wrote a pretty complete application that
simulates the motions of the Jovian moons. See attached manual.
The free software is now discontinued.
If that is something you'd like to further develop, then please
send me a PM.

http://www.requio.com/b4aforum/mokusei-manual.pdf

Please appreciate that the code is not documented and that I
am unable to provide any kind of support. You will be entirely
on your own.


Don't know whether you are also developping for Android phones.

A free widget that simulates the Jovian moons:
https://market.android.com/details?...EsInJlcXVpby5jb21fam92aWFuX3NhdHMud2lkZ2V0Il0.

A paid, but fully featured application:
https://market.android.com/details?...yLDEwMiwicmVxdWlvLmNvbV9nYWxpbGVhbl9tb29ucyJd

Both based on my work for the Pocket PC.

Cheers
Robert
 

mjcoon

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
what is an sbp file? I searched for sbp on this website and got nothing.

1) Search does not work for only three-letter search terms. (But the response does not tell you this; lousy interface!)

2) An sbp file is source code for Basic4PPC, which is what this forum is for:
Android Development Forum - Basic4android > Basic4ppc > Share Your Creations > Moons of Jupiter

It is unfortunate that it is so easy to confuse these two quite separate products. (Buy one and you do not get the other!)

Mike.
 
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