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Planet Events Document
The Planet Events Document allows you to calculate event information for planets, moon, and sun.
Information about the Planet Events Report
The document contains two adjustable panes. The upper pane allows you to specify how the calculation is done and the lower pane displays the resulting report.
Document Settings Pane
General Tab
Location is used to select a particular location on the earth's surface. A location is required to calculate the times in the report. The location used in a new document is that selected Favorite Location using the Location Manager. Note that when an existing document is opened, it retains the same location that was selected when the document was saved. You may select any location by highlighting its name in the drop down list.
The Solar System Objects list box contains the names of Sun, Moon, and all planets except Pluto and Earth. Highlight any number of them that you want to be included in the calculation. You may also use Select All to select all planets, Sun, and Moon, or Clear All, to deselect all of them.
Events allows you to select any combination of the listed events to be included in the calculation. Notice that some events do not occur for some objects, so some events may be disabled (check box grayed). The table below shows which combinations are available.
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Greatest Elongations
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Conjunctions/ Oppositions
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Aphelions/ Perihelions
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Equinoxes/ Solstices
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Eclipses
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Phases
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Sun
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yes
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yes
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Mercury
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yes
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yes
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yes
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Venus
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yes
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yes
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yes
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Mars
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yes
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yes
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Jupiter
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yes
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yes
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Saturn
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yes
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yes
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Uranus
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yes
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yes
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Neptune
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yes
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yes
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Moon
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yes
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yes
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Dates Tab
You may enter dates directly into the Beginning Date or Ending Date boxes, or you may use any of the Date Presets. The beginning date must precede or equal the ending date.
The calendars work for dates between January 1, 1753 and December 31, 9999 inclusively. This is a Windows limitation. If you enter a date outside of this range into the year/month/day boxes the associated calendar is disabled. You may use the calendars or the year/month/day boxes to specify dates within the range.
Date Presets
These presets may be used to specify some commonly used beginning and ending dates, and the days to skip value. The default Preset is specified in Preferences | New Documents.
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Preset
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Beginning Date
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Ending Date
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Days to Skip
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Today
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midnight today
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11:59 pm (23:59) today
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1 day between calculations (1 calculation).
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Tomorrow
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midnight tomorrow
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11:59 pm (23:59) tomorrow
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1 day between calculations (1 calculation).
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This Week
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midnight on Sunday of this week
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11:59 pm (23:59) on Saturday of this week
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1 day between calculations (1 calculation per day for a total of 7 calculations).
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Next Week
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midnight on Sunday of next week
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11:59 pm (23:59) on Saturday of next week
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1 day between calculations (1 calculation per day for a total of 7 calculations).
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This Month
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midnight on the first day of the present month
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11:59 pm (23:59) on the final day of the present month
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1 day between calculations (1 calculation per day for a total of 28 to 31 calculations, depending on the present month).
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Remainder of the Month
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midnight today
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11:59 pm (23:59) on the final day of the present month
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1 day between calculations (1 calculation per day for a total of 1 to 31 calculations, depending on the present date and month).
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Next Month
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midnight on the first day of next month
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11:59 pm (23:59) on the final day of next month
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1 day between calculations (1 calculation per day for a total of 28 to 31 calculations, depending on next month).
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This Year
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midnight on January 1 of the present year
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11:59 pm (23:59) on December 31 of the present year
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1 day between calculations (1 calculation per day for a total of 365 or 366 calculations, depending on the present year).
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Remainder of theYear
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midnight today
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11:59 pm (23:59) on December 31 of the present year
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1 day between calculations (1 calculation per day for a total of 1 to 366 calculations, depending on the present year).
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Next Year
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midnight on January 1 of the next year
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11:59 pm (23:59) on December 31 of the next year
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1 day between calculations (1 calculation per day for a total of 365 or 366 calculations, depending on the next year).
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Report Pane
Calculate initiates calculations and ultimately produces a report. The status of the calculation and creation of the report are shown while these tasks are being performed. You can terminate the calculation by pressing the Cancel button in the status box.
Clear allows you to erase the report text. Report text is automatically erased before a new report is created.
Fit Columns and Show Columns provide control over report content and layout. These functions are discussed in Working with Reports.
Help allows you to open online help to this page.
A recessed status box appears beside the Help button. It shows the total number of objects and events reported for the most recent calculation if a calculation has been performed. If the text in the status box is grayed then the settings in the document have been changed and the report has not been refreshed by Calculate.
Planet Events Report contains the report text that results from the most recent calculation. Click here to see a description of the Planet Events report. The text in the report can be scrolled horizontally and vertically using cursor keys or by clicking the scroll bars.
The report window has a context menu that can be accessed by right-clicking in the window. The context menu contains:
▪name of the object
▪object-specific functions
▪Preferences
▪Report Style Browser
What about?
Local circumstances of eclipses are not calculated. The time of mid-eclipse is calculated, but no inference is made as to whether it is visible at the selected location. For lunar and solar eclipses, Deep-Sky Planner lists all eclipses visible from anywhere on Earth in the time interval specified, not just from the selected location. For a lunar eclipse, Deep-Sky Planner gives the time when the Moon is closest to the axis of the Earth's umbra. This matches the mid-eclipse visible from anywhere on Earth if the Moon is up. For a solar eclipse, Deep-Sky Planner gives the time when the axis of the Moon's shadow cone is closest to the center of the Earth. At any given location, the time of maximum partial eclipse can differ from this time by an hour or two, or the eclipse may not take place, or the Sun may be below the horizon. Strictly speaking, the Dynamical Time of these events is given, not the Universal Time. Universal and Dynamical Times agree within a minute or so for a few centuries around the present, but several thousand years ago they differed by a few hours. Astronomers are still refining the difference between Dynamical and Universal Times for the remote past.
You can calculate and report up to 65535 events for each object.
Additional Information:
▪Accuracy of planetary event calculations
▪Saving a report to CSV
▪Saving a report to HTML
▪Saving a report to Text
▪Saving a report to iCal
▪Printing a document
▪Saving a document
▪Setting default values for a new planet event document
▪Planet Event document speed buttons can be placed on your tool bar so that you can create planet event documents instantly.
Help file version 9.2.3.0 ▪ Copyright © 2024-2026 Knightware, LLC
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