A pocket planetarium in your browser

What you’re looking at

The simulator projects a three-dimensional model onto a 2D canvas using perspective math: camera yaw and pitch, depth-based scaling, and sorted draw order so nearer bodies paint on top. Planets follow elliptical orbits with published eccentricities and relative periods. Distances are compressed so Mercury and Neptune can share one screen without turning Earth into a single pixel.

Planet radii are exaggerated relative to orbital spacing (a common planetarium choice). Relative sizes among the planets themselves stay closer to reality, so Jupiter still looms over Mars.

What is accurate

• Sidereal orbital periods and mean eccentricities
• Approximate relative planet diameters
• Axial character notes (e.g. Uranus’s extreme tilt in the encyclopedia)
• Moon of Earth with a simplified circular path
• A schematic asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter

What is simplified

• No mutual gravity between planets (no N-body chaos)
• No precession, resonances, or spacecraft trajectories
• Rings drawn as flat discs, not particle systems
• Most moons omitted for clarity
• Lighting is artistic, not ray-traced

Who it’s for

Students meeting the solar system for the first time, teachers who want a clean demo on a classroom projector, and anyone who still gets a thrill when Saturn’s rings catch the light. If you want research-grade ephemerides, use JPL Horizons — then come back here for the joy of spinning the camera.