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After many days searching for the answer and probaly not asking the google oracle the right question I am here. First off I am not an astronomer and other I might just be missing that one piece of information I need to answer this myself

I am trying to figure if I can use PyEphem to calculate the position of the planets in a circular orbit. This is for a mechanical display of objects in the solar system, their orbits, and correct position in those orbits. Therefore, I could be looking at the orbit of the planets around the sun, the moons around their planets, etc.... but using perfect circles to represent their positions (so not 100% accurate, but close).

I have not tried anything yet as I am not sure how this would work. As I said I am most likely missing that one piece of information and all will fall into place.

Thanks.

archdata
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  • I do not use pyephem instead I compute all myself but anyway it should be doable pretty easy just set the eccentricity of orbit (usually marked by `e` variable) to `e=0.0` that will do it. The planets are OK but you will have hard time with moons because of the periaxis motion and nutation/(p)recession to implement mechanically... – Spektre Oct 23 '14 at 11:39
  • This question appears to be off-topic because it is about the subject astronomy and not a programming problem. – Peter Mortensen Nov 20 '14 at 02:56

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