Decide if obstime transformations of coordinates with velocities should result in motion
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Description
This issues is a follow-up discussion to an unresolved question from #6219 (in that PR we are punting on the question by raising an error).
The starting point for the topic is https://github.com/astropy/astropy/pull/6219#issuecomment-309399689 - @StuartLittlefair's position is that if you transform to a frame with a different `obstime`, a coordinate with velocities should be moved to a different position based on its velocity vector. @StuartLittlefair added more in https://github.com/astropy/astropy/pull/6219#issuecomment-310907959 and https://github.com/astropy/astropy/pull/6219#issuecomment-310908691 and @mhvk agreed in https://github.com/astropy/astropy/pull/6219#issuecomment-310911108
By contrast, I think this is *not* what we want and will be extremely confusing and inconsistent with the other coordinate machinery - see https://github.com/astropy/astropy/pull/6219#issuecomment-310881737. In https://github.com/astropy/astropy/pull/6219#issuecomment-310906282 and https://github.com/astropy/astropy/pull/6219#issuecomment-310908439 @adrn agreed.
This issue is hence a placeholder, because this is a somewhat significant philosophical question for `coordinates`, so we should resolve it for the next version.
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start by reading the linked discussion in pull request #6219, including the referenced comments, and compare the two positions on obstime transformations in coordinates with velocities. Done means reaching and recording a decision for the next version about whether the transformation should move the coordinate based on its velocity.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- data
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 20/100