The Astronautic Chart

The Astronautic chart is a nomograph or alignment chart so arranged that a single straight line marks off values of the velocity, mass, mean distance, period, and acceleration of any two-body orbiting system. It is illustrated with numerous examples of orbits of planets about the sun, moons about their planets, and artificial earth satellites. All scales give correct values at the extremities of the minor diameter of the elliptical orbit. In the case of binary stars where the masses are comparable, the scales also give correct values of the total mass, total separation, relative velocity, and relative acceleration.