Distance Conversions Program
What It Does
The Distance Conversions app is a simple Windows program / app that converts between multiple distance units: parsecs, light years, light hours, astronomical units, light minutes, light seconds, miles, meters, feet.
In addition, 3 custom "distance" units can be chosen from the following: Mercury diameter, Venus diameter, Earth diameter, Mars diameter, Jupiter diameter, Saturn diameter, Uranus diameter, Neptune diameter, Earth circumference, Sun diameter, Earth-Moon distance, Betelgeuse diameter, Sun-Mercury distance, Sun-Venus distance, Sun-Mars distance, Sun-Jupiter distance, Alpha Centauri distance, Hyades distance, globular cluster diameter (typical), Pleiades distance, Galactic center distance, Milky Way thin disk diameter, LMC (Large Magellanic Cloud) distance, M31 Andromeda Galaxy distance, M33 distance, M51 distance, M87 (Virgo Cluster) distance, Coma Cluster distance, Observable Universe diameter, New York to Los Angeles distance, New York to London distance, cruising altitude commercial airliner, Hydrogen nucleus diameter, and Uranium nucleus diameter.
Additional custom "distance" units can be added by modifying a plain text file.
Download the Distance Conversions Program
The Distance Conversions program is provided as a zip file. The zip file folder contains the Distance Conversions program and a single plain text file "CUSTOM.txt". The Distance Conversions Program is a fully portable Windows application. It runs only from inside its folder, and the folder can be placed anywhere, including on a portable USB flash drive. It does not require any "installation" to run. Simply download the zip file, unzip it to a folder, and click on the G3D-Distance-Conversions.exe file in its folder to run the program (you can rename the folder containing the Distance Conversions program to any name you want).
Instructions
Enter the distance you wish to convert and click "Convert":
This yields the conversions of the entered distance unit (in this example, 1 light year) into all the other distance units:
Click "Clear" to do another distance conversion:
A custom "distance" unit (for example, the Hyades distance) can be chosen from its drop down list:
Clicking "Convert" yields the conversion (in this example, 1 Hyades distance unit) into all the other distance units:
Note if you enter multiple distances to convert and click "Convert," the program will look for only the first filled distance unit box for the conversion (in the order parsec, light year, light hour, astronomical unit, light minute, light second, mile, meter, feet, and then the 3 custom units), and overwrite any others:
Customization
The custom "distance" units available in the three drop-down lists are read at the start of the program from a plain text file named "CUSTOM.txt" in the program folder. This text file can be edited to make additional custom "distance" units available for conversion.
For example, the following is part of the body of the "CUSTOM.txt" plain text file supplied with the program:
#############################============================================= Distance Unit Alpha Centauri Distance Distance Units / LY: 2.289902E-1 Notes: 4.367 light years #############################============================================= Distance Unit Hyades Distance Distance Units / LY: 6.618133686E-3 Notes: 151.1 ly #############################============================================= Distance Unit Globular Cluster Diameter (Typical) Distance Units / LY: 5.000000000E-3 Notes: ~60 pc; ~200 ly #############################============================================= Distance Unit Pleiades Distance Distance Units / LY: 2.251238181E-3 Notes: 444.2 ly; 135.2 +/- 5 pc (Gaia DR2) #############################============================================= Distance Unit Galactic Center Distance Distance Units / LY: 3.846154E-5 Notes: 26,000 light years
To add an additional custom "distance" unit, simple insert the following 4 lines in sequence with other 4 line groups:
#############################============================================= Distance Unit NAME OF THE CUSTOM DISTANCE UNIT Distance Units / LY: number of CUSTOM DISTANCE UNITS per light year Notes: any comments about the CUSTOM DISTANCE UNIT
The "NAME OF THE CUSTOM DISTANCE UNIT" must start as the 30th character on the line (the first 29 characters are ignored by the program). It will appear in the drop down list in the same order it lies within the "CUSTOM.txt" plain text file. The "number of CUSTOM DISTANCE UNITS per light year" is the floating point number used by the program for all conversions (you must use '.' as the decimal delimiter, and it must also start as the 30th character on its line). For example:
#############################============================================= Distance Unit Coma Cluster Distance Distance Units / LY: 3.096934035E-9 Notes: 322.9 million light years
If we take the Coma Cluster Distance as 322.9 million light years, then the number of Coma Cluster distances per light year is 3.096934035 x 10-9. The x 10-9 is indicated by "E-9".
Another example: the Moon's radius is 1738 km, or a diameter of 3476 km. The number of Moon diameters per light year is 2.721729 x 109. The x 109 is indicated by "E09":
#############################============================================= Distance Unit Moon Diameter Distance Units / LY: 2.721729E09 Notes: 1738 km x 2
The program expects the "Notes" line, but the information on the "Notes" lines is ignored by the program.
The program supports up to 50 custom distance units.
