Angle of Inclination

[qoonpooka]

So I've finally parked my first station around Minmus. It's got everything I'll want from it later: two orange tanks, lots of docking ports, plenty of monoprop and EC. Even got a nice contract to put it there (I would've done so anyway, it's my interplanetary refueling station now.)

Thing is, I can't seem to get it's orbit fully equatorial.  5.3 degrees is the closest I can get, and I can't seem to find any combination of burns that get it closer.  The maneuver nodes are useless because they don't show me the AoI.  KER doesn't help much, it only tells me where I'm at, not how to get where I want to go; nor does it show the stats of the node's orbit...

 

Any advice on finding equatorial orbits on my own?

Edited September 4, 2016 by qoonpooka
Image link broken

[IncongruousGoat]

If you get your camera aligned parallel to the plane of the ecliptic, you should be able to eyeball where your orbit intercepts said plane, giving you the place you should burn. For the burn itself, you can try to plan it using a maneuver node, but it would probably be easier to just eyeball the whole thing and burn normal/antinormal until your orbit looks flat (or until KER gives you a satisfactorily low number).

That said... Your station is in orbit of Minmus. Any incoming spacecraft will almost certainly have to perform some sort of correction burn to get into the plane of your space station anyways due to Minmus's inclined orbit, so other than aesthetics there's no reason to shoot for a perfectly equatorial orbit. Plus, the cost of plane-change maneuvers in high Minmus orbit is very low.

[HvP]

Kerbal Engineer does have an option that will make this easier.

In the Flight Engineer box that's open in your screenshot click edit and find the Orbital subsection. You will find a list of available statistics that you can add to your information readouts. Among the info you can add are the ones for "Time to Equ. AN" and "Time to Equ. DN". Click the "INSTALL" button next to the appropriate selections. These will show a counter for how long until you reach your equatorial ascending node or descending node along your current orbit. When the timer ticks down to near 00 then just burn Normal (towards the north pole, the purple triangle on the navball) if you are at your descending node, or burn Anti-Normal (South, the purple triangle with dashes around it) if you are at your ascending node.

Note, those selections are specifically for your inclination relative to the planetary body you are orbiting. If you want to find your inclination relative to another spacecraft that you want to rendezvous with then you need to go into the RENDEZVOUS subsection where it says "Selected Category" in the KER edit menu. From there choose "Time to Rel. AN" or "Time to Rel. DN" to show when you need to burn to match planes with another craft you have targeted.

You can also add this information to your HUD displays by clicking the KER toolbar icon and clicking the EDIT button next to the various items listed as "Orbital", "Vessel", "Delta V", etc...

There is a treasure trove of other options too that you can add which you may find quite helpful.

I hope this made sense.

Edited September 4, 2016 by HvP

[OhioBob]

I believe KER can give you argument of periapsis (looks like you'll have to add it to your Orbital display).  Argument of periapsis is the angular distance between the ascending node and the point of periapsis.  This will allow you to estimate the location of the ascending node.  Once you've estimated the location of the AN, place a maneuver node there and execute the plane change.

For example, if the argument of periapsis is 60 degrees, then the AN is 60 degrees before Pe.  You just have to be able to estimate a 60 degree angle to find the AN.

(edit)

While I was writing this, @HvP posted his solution.  I didn't realize that KER included time to nodes.  I think his solution is easier than mine.
 

Edited September 4, 2016 by OhioBob

[DD_bwest]

KER should be able to give you the info needed..

I use MJ for info windows, and what you should be looking for, as HvP mentioned, is the "time to equatorial DN" or AN.     youll want to burn as close to one of those as possible.

MJ has a manuever node editor that will also let you adjust your maneuver nodes directly on things like AN, DN, ap, pe.

[fourfa]

misread the OP, sorry

Edited September 4, 2016 by fourfa

[qoonpooka]

Thanks HvP! That was exactly what I needed!