Your most circular orbit

[McLuv]

Let's see how circular you can get your orbit. So far my best is an orbit with 196 meters deviation between periapsis and apoapsis (at ~55km above the ground).

Periapsis:

Apoapsis:

Of course eccentricity is what's really important, meaning that same deviation would be even more impressive at say 100km out

Overall eccentricity is: 0.000 276 08

I'll keep the lowest eccentricity record holder in the first post! (http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/scol/callipse.htm is pretty useful to determine eccentricity)

Rules:

• 
  [li]Must complete a full orbit free of adjustements (ie, the orbit after your adjustments is what counts)[/li]
  [li]Need periapsis and apoapsis values posted (preferably pics )[/li]
  

[norinvaux]

I got ridiculously lucky on my first successful orbit. It was a medium/high orbit, somewhere around 80000 M, and I somehow managed, with little to no adjustments, to get an orbital deviation of ~8 meters. The orbit took a little under half an hour to complete (or was it a little over?), and over the entire course of the orbit the distance from Kearth only increased/decreased by one every couple minutes. A near perfect orbit. Sadly, at the time I thought it was normal and not insanely lucky, so I didn't bother taking any pictures. I've been trying to do it again, but it's been difficult, to say the least.

[norinvaux]

I think I may have managed to get a similar orbit, though this time at around 203000 meters.

Seems that every 20 seconds or so I move up or down a meter. I have yet to properly record anything, however, as I'm still in the beginning stages of the orbit.

Screenshots:

...Wait, shit, looks like I'm slowing down slightly. Down .1 m/s. I may have gotten the math wrong, and this may be the wrong speed for this exact orbital height. Ah well, I'll see how it turns out.

Hmm, seems I definitely miscalculated something at some point. Orbit is semi-elliptical, unlike my last near-perfect one. I guess it realyl was a fluke.

[McLuv]

I think I may have managed to get a similar orbit, though this time at around 203000 meters.

Seems that every 20 seconds or so I move up or down a meter. I have yet to properly record anything, however, as I'm still in the beginning stages of the orbit.

Screenshots:

...Wait, shit, looks like I'm slowing down slightly. Down .1 m/s. I may have gotten the math wrong, and this may be the wrong speed for this exact orbital height. Ah well, I'll see how it turns out.

Woah, all the same post your max and mins because even if your deviation is higher, being out at 200km means that eccentricity may still be less.

And norinvaux, 8 meters???!

[norinvaux]

And norinvaux, 8 meters???!

Yeah, around there. I though it was fairly normal at the time. Too bad I didn't take a screenshot. Went around Kearth a few times, and it never deviated more than 8 or so meters. Speed was also constant all the way through. The orbit in my above post seems to be more elliptical, however, as it's now deviating quite a lot.

I missed the maximum, but managed to catch it just as it was headed back down. I'm guessing the max was at around 204100 or so. Min coming up.

Well shit, seems I missed the min too. Ah well. Moving a meter every 6 seconds or so, so I'm guessing I'm not all that far from the min in the above screenshot. So, max is around 204100, min is around 203700.

Eccentricity is... I dunno.

...What's Kearth's diameter? The distance from the ground is measured in relation to Kearth's SURFACE, not the center of Kearth, so I can't just use the number I already have.

Eccentricity is 0.0398290984. So, pretty high, actually. Shitty orbit. Look below for correct, looks like lack of sleep and general misunderstandings in the field lead to DERP on my part.

[McLuv]

It's got an eccentricity of 0.000 565.

You major axis is [Height at Apoapsis in meters]+[Diamater of Keart (600 000m)]+[Height at Periapsis in meters], and your focii distance is the deviation between your max/min heights. You should be able to calculate the rest with that information.

Actually I'm probably doing this wrong, is the diameter of Kearth 600 km, or is that the radius?

[norinvaux]

Actually I'm probably doing this wrong, is the diameter of Kearth 600 km, or is that the radius?

Seems you're doing it right, and yes, 600KM is Kearth's diameter according to the wiki.

Also, I've decided to try and come out of orbit back onto the launch pad. May not work terribly well with only one tiny-ass engine left.

[SteevyT]

Eccentricity of 0.0000427

Periapsis: 125,903

Apoapsis: 125,965

All vanilla parts.

And the ship is below, it can put a satellite (ASAS module and RCS fuel tank) in this orbit, or if I didn\'t use so much fuel to circularize, I could deploy the satellite on an escape trajectory.

[Alchemist]

8140077m-8140750m

With a satellite (last picture is separation)

RCS makes wonders

[One Winged Angel]

Dunno how, but I got into a ridiculously circular orbit at ~184,000m. Apo was 184,400 and Peri was at 183,600. +-400m at 184Km up; not too shabby IHMO. No screenies, sorry.

Side note, I went into 50x warp, and when I came back, my ship was locked in it\'s orientation. If I turned on SAS it shook around, and when I turned it off it stopped. Weird as hell, and unfortunately cost me the mission. Since I couldn\'t rotate my ship I couldn\'t decel and I was eternally stuck in orbit.

[Guest Flixxbeatz]

Here\'s mine, with an Apoapsis of ~128,300m and Periapsis just above the atmosphere

[icefire]

images:

I didn\'t actively try to get these values, was testing a rocket design and after MECO and noticed the orbit had a low eccentricity, figured I would post it here.

78.794k

78.514k

0.0002 eccentricity

Seems you\'re doing it right, and yes, 600KM is Kearth\'s diameter according to the wiki.

Also, I\'ve decided to try and come out of orbit back onto the launch pad. May not work terribly well with only one tiny-ass engine left.

600 km is not the diameter, its the radius!

The diameter is 1200 km

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/~kerbalsp/wiki/index.php?title=Kerbin

If you don\'t want to use a tool to calculate eccentricity:

e = 1 - (2 / ((apr / per) + 1))

e = eccentricity

apr = apoapsis + planet radius

per = periapsis + planet radius

[Payload]

The best I could muster just by eyeballing it.

[SunJumper]

I managed an orbit with an eccentricity of 0.000049, simply by having the orbit at the very edge of Kerbin\'s SOI.

[Twinky827]

..... OLD challenge. Havent seen old modelling fuel tanks in ahwile...

[SunJumper]

You could get insanely circular orbits if you orbit Kerbol in a 1000000000X1000000000 km orbit, but it would take ages with the 10000x warp cap, and the Kraken.