Comets
Features
- Ephemeris calculation
- Graph of visual magnitude or distance to Sun or Earth
- 3D Orbit Viewer
- Orbital elements converter (all MPC listed formats supported, and some more)
- Dark theme
Credits
Inspired by the Comet for Windows by Seiichi Yoshida.
Includes advanced version of OrbitViewer.NET (C# rewrite of OrbitViewer by Osamu Ajiki and Ron Baalke).
Dark theme thanks to Dark-Mode-Forms by BlueMystical (my fork here).
Books and other open source astronomy software and libraries used for reference listed below.
Download
Screenshots
References
Books
Astronomical Algorithms by Jean Meeus (Willmann-Bell, 1998)
Astronomical Formulae for Calculators by Jean Meeus (Willmann-Bell, 1988)
Practical Astronomy with your Calculator or Spreadsheet by Peter Duffett-Smith and Jonathan Zwart (Cambridge, 2011)
Web
Computing planetary positions (#1, #2) by Paul Schlyter
Software
Cartes du Ciel (SkyChart) by Patrick Chevalley
Celestia by Chris Laurel et al.
Stellarium by Fabien Chereau et al.
OrbitViewer by Osamu Ajiki and Ron Baalke
OrbitViewer by Kevin Gill et al. (NASA/JPL)
PlanetDroid by Wolfgang Strickling
AstroLib by Mark Huss
Javascript AstroTools by Ole Nielsen
ProjectPluto by Bill Gray
AA+ by PJ Naughter
Links
Some comets-related pages and sites:
Heavens-Above | Comets
TheSkyLive | Bright Comets
astro.vanbuitenen.nl | Visual comets
aerith.net | Visual Comets in the Future
Comet Observation database (COBS)
IAU Minor Planet Center
CometWatch
Archive
In the beginning no actual source control system was used. Instead there were multiple copies of folders in “Final“-like manner. In April 2024 all that folder copies were migrated to git to preserve history the right way. More details about that in Comets-Archive repo as well as all archive branches.