[AstroPy] 3-D Graphics Tools for for Documentation, Presentations, etc.

[Wayne Watson]

It was some months ago when I posted this, and had limited time to 
really look at the tools suggested. I did delve into Visual Python, but 
it wasn't really suitable for the task. I ended up doing my drawings in 
Word, and omitted spheres and arcs for the most part, but did draw 
coordinate systems with labels. It worked. However, I still am curious 
about drawing coordinate systems.

In my present case I have three coordinate systems going for two 
observing stations on the earth, a meteor moving overhead, and the 
general earht centered system. What I'm ultimately trying to do is to 
solve for the az-el of points on the meteor path (great circle is fine, 
60 miles high), for each station. Currently, I'm drawing this with 
pencil and paper. It's working, and helps my thinking and computations. 
It does produce a lot erasures and re-draws.  I'd be curious if anyone 
has done this in mayavi2 or S2PLOT? Any examples? I have more freedom to 
see what's available.



Wayne Watson wrote:
> Many years ago to put together a presentation or article on celestial 
> mechanics, spherical trig, trajectory analysis, etc. I would use a 
> compass, ruler, and maybe a French curve to draw the figures, coordinate 
> axes, etc. on paper. Labels would be typed onto the sheets. I would like 
> to think that over the last decade that some modest software package 
> might be available to do this. Does anyone know of any?
>
>   

-- 
           Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)

             (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
              Obz Site:  39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet  
                
             "... humans'innate skills with numbers isn't much
              better than that of rats and dolphins." 
                       -- Stanislas Dehaene, neurosurgeon 
 
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