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The mean anomaly at epoch, M 0, is defined as the instantaneous mean anomaly at a given epoch, t 0. This value is sometimes provided with other orbital elements to enable calculations of the object's past and future positions along the orbit.
An orbiting body's mean longitude is calculated L = Ω + ω + M, where Ω is the longitude of the ascending node, ω is the argument of the pericenter and M is the mean anomaly, the body's angular distance from the pericenter as if it moved with constant speed rather than with the variable speed of an elliptical orbit.
where M 1 and M 0 are the mean anomalies at particular points in time, and Δt (≡ t 1-t 0) is the time elapsed between the two. M 0 is referred to as the mean anomaly at epoch t 0, and Δt is the time since epoch.
Instead of the mean anomaly at epoch, the mean anomaly M, mean longitude, true anomaly ν 0, or (rarely) the eccentric anomaly might be used. Using, for example, the "mean anomaly" instead of "mean anomaly at epoch" means that time t must be specified as a seventh orbital element. Sometimes it is assumed that mean anomaly is zero at the epoch ...
In astronomy, an epoch or reference epoch is a moment in time used as a reference point for some time-varying astronomical quantity. It is useful for the celestial coordinates or orbital elements of a celestial body, as they are subject to perturbations and vary with time. [1]
Such functions can be expressed as periodic series of any continuously increasing angular variable, [6] and the variable of most interest is the mean anomaly, M. Because it increases uniformly with time, expressing any other variable as a series in mean anomaly is essentially the same as expressing it in terms of time.
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Solving for is more or less equivalent to solving for the true anomaly, or the difference between the true anomaly and the mean anomaly, which is called the "Equation of the center". One can write an infinite series expression for the solution to Kepler's equation using Lagrange inversion , but the series does not converge for all combinations ...