Dear Jonathan, You wrote: > > PAS 1R > > 1 26608U 00072A 02079.94130788 -.00000274 00000-0 00000+0 0 > > 2939 > > 2 26608 0.0180 354.4991 0000429 321.3661 156.2908 1.00270296 > > 4973 > > Does this geosat intentionally have an orbital period just barely shorter > than 24 hours (23 hours 56 minutes 7 seconds), or is its operators > satisfied that it is close enough to a 24 hour orbital period? > The earth rotates once every 23 hours 56 minutes 4 seconds RELATIVE TO THE STARS (24 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds, on average, relative to the sun). And incidentally, the "1.00270296" revolutions per [24-hour] day in the TLE may well include small factors due to perturbations, but that is not the major issue here; the true sidereal rotation period of the earth is 24 hours / 1.0027379.. . Clear skies! Ed Light ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Apr 02 2002 - 16:39:53 EST