Pluto examples

Let’s define a small helper function:

def print_me(msg, val):

    print("{}: {}".format(msg, val))

We can compute the geometric heliocentric position for a given epoch:

epoch = Epoch(2018, 10, 27.0)

lon, lat, r = Pluto.geometric_heliocentric_position(epoch)

print_me("Geometric Heliocentric Longitude", lon.to_positive())

# Geometric Heliocentric Longitude: 232.740711423

print_me("Geometric Heliocentric Latitude", lat)

# Geometric Heliocentric Latitude: 14.5878173017

print_me("Radius vector", r)

# Radius vector: 29.711110981

Compute the geocentric position for 1992/12/20:

epoch = Epoch(1992, 12, 20.0)

ra, dec, elon = Pluto.geocentric_position(epoch)

print_me("Right ascension", ra.ra_str(n_dec=1))

# Right ascension: 15h 31' 43.7''

print_me("Declination", dec.dms_str(n_dec=1))

# Declination: -4d 27' 28.8''