Uranus Viewer 2.1 Help
This form enables you to generate a Postscript file showing the
appearance of the Uranus system at a specified time. All bodies are
rendered with terminators and shadows as appropriate. Selected
background stars can also be included.
In the diagram, Uranus and the moons are modeled as triaxial ellipsoids,
and are drawn with latitude and longitude contours at 15 degree
intervals. Illuminated regions are indicated with black lines;
unilluminated regions and terminators are shown as light gray.
Penumbral shadows are not indicated.
A selection of the rings is also drawn. The rings are
shown in black if illuminated and in gray if not or if the opposite side
is illuminated. The Epsilon Ring is shown by its inner and outer boundaries;
other rings are shown as single lines. The Lambda Ring is plotted as a dashed
line if selected. All rings have their correct inclinations and eccentricities,
based on the models of French et al. (in Uranus, Bergstralh, Miner and
Matthews, Eds., University of Arizona Press, 1984, pp. 327-409).
However, the higher-order modes of the Gamma, Delta and Lambda Rings are not
shown.
The diagram is oriented with J2000 declination increasing upward and
with right ascension increasing to the left. The frame has
uniformly-spaced tick marks along each axis. The declination axis is
labeled in degrees, minutes and seconds; the right ascension axis is
labeled in hours, minutes and seconds.
Each diagram includes a caption that summarizes the key parameters
used to generate it.
Change History
1.0 (February 4, 1997):
Original Uranus viewer on line.
1.1 (February 8, 1997):
Additional information at the bottom of the "results" page includes the
subsolar and sub-Earth longitudes. Also, older ephemerides URA027 and
URA032 have been added, making it possible to generate diagrams over a
much longer range of dates. Finally, new options make it possible to
mark the ring pericenters on the diagram.
2.0 (February 1, 1999):
Added two new ephemeris options.
Added a viewpoint option including Voyager 2 and parallax
corrections for Earth-based observatories.
Added alternative units (Uranus radii, kilometers, and the Voyager
camera fields of view) to the field of view options.
Added background star options.
Added an option to suppress latitude and longitude lines, producing
diagrams that are suitable as drawing blanks for amateur observers.
Added distances and light travel time to output table.
2.1 (January 31, 2002):
Added star name option for diagram center.
Added hour/degree options for right ascensions.
2.2 (August 24, 2006):
Added Perdita, Mab and Cupid.
The observation time (UTC) can be entered in a variety of formats.
For example, the following all parse to 0:01:02 UTC on July 4, 1976:
- 1976-JUL-04 00:01:02.00
- July 4, 1976 12:01:02 am
- 12:01:02 am July 4, 1976
- 1976-07-04T00:01:02Z (PDS format)
- MJD 42963.00071759259
- JD 2442963.50071759259
If you want the gory details of how times are interpreted, click
here.
Enter the field of view of the drawing to be generated and select the
appropriate units. Units can be seconds of arc (the default), Uranus
radii, kilometers (projected at the distance to Uranus) or the fields of
view of Voyager cameras.
Currently, the Uranus Viewer can use one of two different ephemerides.
Under most circumstances the last option is to be preferred
since it is most recent and therefore most accurate. However, a choice
to use a slightly outdated set of ephemerides is provided to enable
users to generate tables over a much longer range of times.
-
#1: Best JPL ephemerides as of late 1994. It uses JPL ephemeris URA027
for the major satellites (Miranda-Oberon) and URA032 for Uranus' inner,
smaller satellites. Valid for the period 1980-Jan-1 to 2009-Dec-31
(URA027) and 1994-Jan-1 to 1998-Dec-31 (URA032).
-
#2: JPL ephemeris URA031 for the major satellites (Miranda-Oberon) and
URA033 for the inner, smaller satellites. Valid for the period
1990-Jan-1 to 1999-Dec-31 (URA031) and 1996-Jan-1 to 1999-Dec-31
(URA033).
NOTE: Ephemeris URA031 is a numerical fit to Voyager data, and is
believed to be less accurate over the long term than the earlier
analytic model (URA027). This option is provided for
backward-compatibility but is not recommended.
-
#3: Best JPL ephemeris as of 1997. Compared to option #2 above, this
option substitutes the slightly older but preferred ephemeris for the
major satellites. It uses uses the same JPL ephemeris as above, URA033,
for the inner, smaller satellites. Valid for the period 1980-Jan-1 to
2009-Dec-31 (URA027) and 1996-Jan-1 to 1999-Dec-31 (URA033).
-
#4: Best JPL ephemeris as of January 1999. It uses JPL ephemeris URA027
for the major satellites (Miranda-Oberon) and new ephemeris URA039 for
the inner, smaller satellites. Valid for the period 1980-Jan-1 to
2009-Dec-31. Also, this option uses JPL planetary ephemeris DE405
beginning 1997-Jan-01.
New: JPL ephemeris URA074 has been added for Perdita (U25), Mab (U26)
and Cupid (U27). It is valid for the period 1986-Jan-1 to 2009-Dec-31.
Four different methods of specifying the diagram center are supported.
Click on the box to the left of the option you wish to use.
Body: The diagram will be centered on the location of the
selected body.
Ring ansa: The diagram will be centered on the ansa of the
selected ring. Specify the east or west ansa using the second box.
Note that east is toward the left in the diagram.
J2000 RA and dec: The diagram will be centered on the specified
pair of right ascension and declination coordinates. The first box is
for the RA and the second box is for the dec. You may also specify
whether the RA is in units of hours or degrees. Enter up to three
values in each box, separated by spaces; these values are interpreted as
degrees/hours, minutes and seconds, respectively. Any or all values can
have fractional parts.
Star name: Enter the name of a star as it appears in the current
list. The name must match exactly.
You may specify the point of view of the diagram. By default, the point
of view is the center of the Earth.
Observatory:
You may select from any viewpoint on the list.
- Earth's center
- Voyager 2: Valid for the period 1985-Nov-04 to 1986-Feb-25.
- Named observatories:
After each observatory's name, you will see listed its latitude and east
longitude in degrees, followed by its altitude in meters. Note that
only very rarely will a diagram change significantly based on the
particular location of an Earth-based observatory.
Latitude & Longitude:
If your desired observatory or location is not on the observatory list,
you can enter its latitude, longitude and altitude in the three boxes
provided. Latitudes and longitudes can each be specified by up to
three values, interpreted as degrees, minutes and seconds. Longitudes
can be specified either east or west.
If you wish to have an observatory added to the standard list, or to
refine the coordinates of a listed observatory, email the necessary
information to
Mark Showalter.
You can decide which moons to include in the diagram. At minimum,
Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon are included.
Use the boxes to the left of the list to choose the smallest set of
moons to include. Note that, whatever your choice, the moons appearing
above it in the list will also be shown.
You can decide which rings to include in the diagram. Click
on the box to the left to show the main rings (Alpha, Beta, Eta, Gamma,
Delta and Epsilon), the smaller inner rings (6, 5 and 4), and the faint
Lambda Ring. Note that, whatever your choice, the rings appearing
above it in the list will also be shown.
You have several independent options for including background objects in
the diagrams. These options make it possible to render diagrams showing
the geometry of stellar or spacecraft occultations. Objects are marked by
pluses and are labeled by name if the
Moon & Star Labels option is activated.
Standard stars:
Check the box to include any of a standard list of stars that happen to
fall inside the field of view of the diagram. The Uranus Viewer does not
access a star catalog; instead, it only plots stars from a finite list.
To view the current star list, click
here.
This list is updated periodically at the request of the users; if you
would like to have a star added to the list, email the necessary
information to
Mark Showalter.
Additional star:
In addition to or instead of the standard stars, you can specify one
additional star to be included in the diagram. Check the box to the
left and enter the star's RA, dec, and name in the three boxes. You
may also specify whether the RA is in units of hours or degrees. Enter
up to three values in the RA and dec boxes, separated by spaces; the
values are interpreted as hours/degrees, minutes and seconds,
respectively. Any or all values can have fractional parts.
Other bodies:
Check each box to mark the location of the specified body or spacecraft
in the diagram.
Enter a title for the plot in this box. It will appear centered above
the diagram.
Optionally, the diagram will be generated with the name of each moon and
star written above and to the right of its center. You may select the
size of these labels in points, where a point is 1/72 inches.
The diagram is rendered to scale, which means that some of the smallest
Uranian moons may be very hard to see. You may enter a minimum
plotted size for moons in this box. If a nonzero value is used, the
smallest moons will be easier to see. The size is in units of points,
equal to 1/72 inches. A value of ~4 may be appropriate.
If you activate this option, all latitude and longitude lines will be
suppressed in the diagram. This produces a diagram that is suitable for
amateur observers to use as a drawing blank.
You have the option of placing a dot at the location of the pericenter
of each eccentric ring in the diagram. Select whether you want to mark
no rings, just the Epsilon Ring, or all eccentric rings. Also enter the
size of the dot, in units of points (= 1/72 inches).
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Last updated 24 August 2006
Mark Showalter