Re: Intro
Bjoern Gimle (b_gimle@algonet.se)
Sat, 24 Aug 1996 00:56:27 +0200 (MET DST)
Welcome, Ray !
I hope my answer to your last question will help.
>I am an avid amateur astronomer with LX-200
>using C-Sat for the past month
I have bought C-Sat only because I was offered to borrow an LX200
from a store for a few days - with hopes of more.
>In my vocation I have built, tested and operated .....
>UARS -- STS 48 ...
An impressive merit list ! And STS-48/UARS is one of my favourites,
being the best shuttle I've seen - we don't get many at 59 N lat.
and I missed a few before I found RPV and CBBS and Internet.
Although you would have seen hundreds of STS/UARS track pictures,
you might care to look at my own favourite picture at
http://www.algonet.se/~b_gimle/tracks.htm
>A question While my astronomer friends are looking up
> they will see a satellite, even pass thru a telescope
> field of view WHAT WAS THAT?
> ?What is the best/easiest way for me to back out a
> RA, Dec, and time to a named satelite?
> I can Mac, PC or UNIX.
In my opinion, using SkyMap 5.10 by Rob Matson for PC.
Menu-driven, but all menu choices can be saved in multiple
configuration files. Just load your ID.cfg, ( set for your
lat/long and about 6 min. interval, and your standard elset
file if you have one ) enter date and time, and position in
RA/dec, star or deep space object name, or alt/az, and start
the program searching.
The tracks in the area will show up, with USSPACECOM ID, times,
estimated magnitudes, time tags/ticks. You can easily verify the
position and angle of the track, and also the apparent speed.
A log file will show more name info, and three points of
each track over the whole sky in the time period.
If you need to search using a larger elset file, and/or fainter
satellites, just change these two values and press F10 to start
a new search.
This is my idea of easy ID, not the one proposed in mail latest/3254.
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