On 5/23/16 1:05 PM, Henry Spencer wrote:
On Mon, 23 May 2016, Hop David wrote:Thank you Henry, Nathan, Rand & John.
To describe an ellipse I have often used radius... For example, the transfer orbit from LEO to GEO I would describe as a (6678 km x 42164 km) ellipse.
But looking around it seems more often altitude is used instead of distance from center. Should I be calling this a (300 km x 35786 km) ellipse?
Yes, that is the normal practice for orbits around sizable planetary bodies. (Conventions for small bodies are less well-established, and for solar orbits I think everybody just ignores the small-but-finite size of the Sun and quotes radii.)
Henry