Re: Orbital parameters for binary stars

fcorica0802 Jul 17, 2011

Hi Bill:

Thanks for your response. I finally could finish my Excel file to calculate orbital parameters for visual binary using as input data the r and v vectors.

I have other question. Does the source code in classel.cpp work well for very excentric orbit? As you know in wide binary system there exists orbit highly excentric (> 0.9 for example). Thanks.

-- Francisco Rica --

--- In find_orb@yahoogroups.com, Bill J Gray <pluto@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Francisco,
>
> > Please forget my message. Finally yesteday I could confirm that "gm"
> > variable is G * (Ma + Mb)
>
> True. I'm usually thinking in terms of asteroids, where the
> mass of the secondary component can be safely neglected (unless
> you're going out to ten decimal places... which doesn't seem so
> outrageous, now that I think of it.) I've never tackled solving
> binary star orbits. But converting a state vector to classical
> elements ought to work the same way.
>
> -- Bill
>