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Article: <5fmoic$hes@dfw-ixnews10.ix.netcom.com>
From: saquo@ix.netcom.com(Nancy )
Subject: Re: LONG ELLIPSE ORBITS
Date: 6 Mar 1997 15:41:00 GMT
In article <714@starlight.win-uk.net> Terry Platt
writes:
>>This is depicted in Astronomy magazine, November 1986,
>> on pages 8-9, an article written by Charles E Kolhase,
>> then manager of the Voyager Missions Planning Office
>> at JPL. His diagrams clearly show that these probes fly
>> in STRAIGHT LINES between the encounters they are
>> programmed to make.
>> saquo@ix.netcom.com
>
> Firstly, I have seen and read the article referred to, and
my
> comment about (lack of) enthusiasm was aimed at the artist
> who created the drawing (probably not Mr Kohlase, but
> someone in the art department at the magazine). He probably
> decided that straight lines would do to illustrate the
article,
> when a very gentle curve should have been shown.
> tplatt@starlight.win-uk.net (Terence Christopher Platt)
You've read the article? Then you must have noticed that the diagram depict a curved orbit for the Voyager while it is close to the Sun and its gravitational influence but switches to a straight line when the Voyager is moving outward toward and between the outer planets it visits. Did the artist decide to switch symbolism mid-drawing? Artistic license is NOT TAKEN with these types of diagrams, accompanying pages of detailed and explicit text. If you imagine that the author, Charles Kolhase, failed to review the diagram prior to publication, especially when his job title includes the word "Planning Office", then you're either naive, inexperienced, or simply not thinking.