

Show HN: A JSON API for NASA HORIZONS Planetary Ephemeris Tables - eloisius

I don't always all-caps, but when I do, it's because every word is an acronym.<p>The NASA HORIZONS[1] system is a telnet service that provides planetary data and ephemeris tables, which are basically coordinate-time plots for celestial bodies.<p>It's pretty archaic and somewhat difficult to use, especially since it just dumps out text tables and you have to parse it to do anything with it.<p>Some projects, e.g. KDE Marble, use it as a data source and typically just consume it with a little procedural code to get what they need.<p>I wanted to provide a full-fledged library for it so that you can easily mash it up in a web app, so I started a Gem called Tengai[2]. It has a very minimal set of features right now, but I have a lot of ideas and I'd appreciate feedback (and forking!).<p>This little Sinatra app[3] uses Tengai to provide a JSON interface to the ephemerides. Check it out:<p>http://horizons.herokuapp.com/bodies/499/ephemeris?start_time=2013-3-23%2000:00:00&#38;stop_time=2013-3-23%2023:59:00&#38;interval=720<p>[1]: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons<p>[2]: https://github.com/zacstewart/tengai<p>[3]: https://github.com/zacstewart/restful-horizons
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shazzy
This is a great idea. I am sure this would be really useful to astrophys
undergrads. Last time I need to use it for a project I had to make a python
script download from their telnet service.

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eloisius
Thanks! I know how old code gets lost under the couch and all, but if you have
it hanging around, I'd love to see it.

