ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

Hello Folks!

For those interested in astronomy and/or my 'Mephemeris' application, or recent 'MChronos' applet, you might also be interested in my 'MOrrery' applet.

What is an 'orrery'? To me, it is just a strange name for a solar system orbit simulator:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orrery

Basically, I stole some of this code from 'Mephemeris', and put it into an applet form (using 'MChronos' as a starting point). Again, this applet uses the incredibly valuable 'PyEphem' libraries, and is written in Python. It is currently set to only refresh once a day, so it should not take up too much CPU :)

In any case, I packaged what little I had, and put it on my web page (like the other stuff):

http://darethehair.googlepages.com/software.html

That page has a few more screen shots, as well as links to the 'deb' file, and the 'README' file as well -- if you want to find out more about it before installing it.

WARNING: Even though this applet has not caused *me* any problems, you should use it on your own risk. If you do, let me know what you think of it. I tend to think of it more like 'eye candy' than something seriously useful! :)

Here is a small screenshot showing one of the configurations:

http://darethehair.googlepages.com/m...iform_text.png

If anyone actually uses this thing, let me know what you think of it. Compared to Mephemeris, this was trivial to write. Even compared to MChronos, it was fairly easy. The biggest headache is doing actual development *on* the N800.

P.S. Don't be intimidated by the large size -- one of the options is to turn off the text info, which makes it fairly compact.

NOTE: Upgraded to version 0.10.

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

Very cool, downloading now!

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

Thanks! But you should hold off your compliments until *after* you have tried it -- what if it blows up your tablet?

:)

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

My NIT is barely responsible (twice a minute approx) after this applet got installed. Had to disable it.

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

allnameswereout:

The README cautions about the 'initialization' time required for the applet if 'accurate' orbit plotting mode is activated (15 seconds). If you change the 'ini' file setting for the 'scale' to be 'uniform' instead, you will not take this time hit. Can you try that and confirm?

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

Folks:

I was encouraged by the post above to do two things for version 0.10:

- change the 'default' orbit plot mode from 'accurate' to 'uniform', in order to show Morrery in its 'faster' (but less accurate) mode initially

- add an 'ini' file option to control the resolution used to plot orbits in the 'accurate' mode, with an initial setting that only takes 6 seconds (instead of 15) to plot a few fews for each orbit (72 rather than the original 180).

Let me know what you think! :)

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

Folks:

I noticed a very small bug, so I have released a very minor update to Morrery:

2008/11/24 = version 0.11
- fix bug in wrongly-labelled heliocentric latitude/longitude for planet positions

Package and README is still on the same web page:

http://darethehair.googlepages.com/software.html

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

Thanks, with new version it doesn't hang anymore.

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

allnameswereout:

Thanks for commenting on the newest version! For clarity, though, I should point out that it would have been the previous version (0.10) that you would have noticed a change of behavior for i.e. that is the one where the 'default' behavior was changed from 'accurate/slow' to 'inaccurate/fast' :) [msg #6 above]

For myself, I have both 'Morrery' and 'Mchronos' running perpetually on my tablet now, and it is interesting to see the slight change that occurs when I view it after a few days of slumber -- for Morrery, the planet positions make a small 'jump' -- especially the inner planets.

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

:)

Maybe you could upload your software to Extras-Devel, so that users can use the Application Manager to install your software. Else, an APT repository with .install file would at least make it easier than right now.

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

allnameswereout:

Your suggestion is puzzling and interesting at the same time :)

When I click on these 'deb' package links on my software page, it automatically starts up 'Application Manager' and proceeds just as if I had 'picked' it from the application manager itself. It might be interesting to have my applets within the 'official' repositories, but I think that the existing 'click on a web page link' method is still fairly easy for users, is it not? I still have a lot to learn about the 'debian/Maemo' world...

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

Maybe simple, but I see you also included the dwarf planet Pluto but not other dwarf planets (Ceres, Eris) of which the first appears much brighter to Earth observers than Pluto.

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

skatebiker:

Yes, I included 'Pluto' as a planet in the orrery, since it has traditionally been considered to be one until recently :) I considered adding other bodies (like our own Moon), but decided that it got too cluttered to do so. Maybe some future release could include (optionally) some other bodies with known orbital parameters -- if people ask for it.

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

Users will be able to update the software to the latest version easily, using the Application Manager. Potential users will also be able to easily install it because they saw it in the Application Manager. You'll also have access to the BTS and other benefits (see http://garage.maemo.org for more information).

You're free to ignore, and not use Garage, but it benefits the community and its users if you use Garage for your software.

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

allnameswereout: Thanks for the gentle prodding :)

I have taken your advise, and started the first step in registering with garage.maemo.org. At this point, it is not clear to me exactly *how* this will lead to any of my apps showing up in Application Manager, but we will see how it goes!

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

Oops, I made a mistake.

Garage will just mean that users can find Maemo projects easily, in 'the Garage' and http://projectname.garage.maemo.org can then be the 'homepage'.

To upload to Extras-Devel (and later perhapt Extras if its declared stable) please read http://wiki.maemo.org/Uploading_to_Extras

Re: ANNOUNCE: MOrrery - Astronomy Orrery Applet
 

Folks:

With some of the 'button' tricks I learned for my recent changes to 'MChronos', I have made some minor improvements to 'MOrrery' as well i.e. version 0.16 now has some buttons to toggle the various options that are available. It might also be a bit faster now for the 'accurate' orbit plot mode.

If interested, find it in 'extras-devel':

http://repository.maemo.org/extras-d...ree/m/morrery/

...or find it (as always) on my 'software' page -- complete with some new screenshots:

http://darethehair.googlepages.com/software.html

Please let me know if it works for you. Also let me know if 'extras-devel' works for you -- and if so, I will promote it to 'extras'.