I am an economics graduate with a deep interest in computing, astronomy, and maths. But I’m also a visual learner, and I find graphs and diagrams help me understand a concept much better. Therefore, I made this blog to help understand ellipses and eclipses better.

While working on a project to use telescopic data in a BLS algorithm to detect exoplanets, I came across Winn’s 2010 paper (Winn, Joshua N. “Transits and Occultations.” arXiv:1001.2010, arXiv, 24 Sept. 2014. arXiv.org, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1001.2010).

As someone with no formal training in astonomy or physics, I found the paper a little confusing. This website is intended as a basic primer to that paper. It covers the basics of ellipses, elliptical orbits, and elliptical orbits in 3D, before going on to cover some of the maths outlined in Section 2 of the paper.

It is recommended that you read the posts in order from oldest to newest, but to jump straight to the fun bit, see the interactive 3d model of an elliptical orbit.