Phase 1 — Stars, comets, Keplerian propagation:
- star_observe() / star_observe_safe(): fixed star alt/az via IAU 1976
precession, equatorial-to-horizontal transform
- kepler_propagate(): two-body Keplerian orbit propagation for
elliptic, parabolic, and hyperbolic orbits
- comet_observe(): observe comets/asteroids from orbital elements
- heliocentric type: ecliptic J2000 position (x, y, z in AU)
Phase 2 — VSOP87 planets, ELP82B Moon, Sun:
- planet_heliocentric(): VSOP87 heliocentric ecliptic J2000 positions
for Mercury through Neptune (Bretagnon & Francou, MIT)
- planet_observe(): full observation pipeline for any planet
- sun_observe(): Sun position from negated Earth VSOP87
- moon_observe(): ELP2000-82B lunar position (Chapront-Touzé, MIT)
- Clean-room precession (IAU 2006) and sidereal time (IERS 2010)
- elliptic_to_rectangular utility (Stellarium, MIT)
All Stellarium extractions are MIT-licensed, thread-safe (static
caching removed for PARALLEL SAFE), zero external data files.
All 9 regression tests pass (90ms total).
Three-stage Dockerfile: Ubuntu 22.04 builder (glibc-matched to
TimescaleDB-HA), scratch artifact image (~748KB), and standalone
postgres:17 image. All 6 regression suites run during build.
Makefile gains docker-build, docker-push, and docker-test targets.
Implements 5 new C functions requested by the Craft (Astrolock) API team:
- tle_from_lines(text, text): two-argument TLE constructor
- observer_from_geodetic(float8, float8, float8): numeric observer constructor
- observe(tle, observer, timestamptz): single-call propagate + topocentric
- sgp4_propagate_safe(tle, timestamptz): returns NULL on propagation error
- observe_safe(tle, observer, timestamptz): returns NULL on propagation error
Refactors do_propagate() into safe/unsafe variants to support NULL returns.
Adds regression test (convenience.sql) covering all new functions including
an equivalence test verifying observe() matches the manual two-step pipeline.
All 6 regression tests pass.
6 custom types (tle, eci_position, geodetic, topocentric, observer,
pass_event), 67 SQL functions, 2 operators (&&, <->), and a GiST
operator class for altitude-band indexing. Wraps Bill Gray's sat_code
for SGP4/SDP4 propagation with WGS-72 constants for propagation and
WGS-84 for coordinate output. All 5 regression tests pass on PG 18.
