I checked Chris Peat's Iridium Flare predictions page this morning and my location did have a prediction for this evening. About 15 minutes before the predicted pass, I got back on that page to double check the details of the pass. The prediction no longer showed in the list for my location. Thankfully I had the detail page from this morning in my browser's history list and I went to that page and I got the details and decided to try to view it anyway. I'm very glad I did... the pass was indeed visible as had been predicted earlier and it was the -8 magnitude that was expected... what a sight! Here's my question. Why did the pass prediction disappear? I originally thought it might be the result of an updated elset, but the pass did occur exactly as predicted. Does the prediction software used for this site have a "blind spot" for passes in the very near and very recent terms? I verified that the search parameters did include the moment of the pass for both the next 24 hours and past 48 hours links. The detail page still shows the proper information even when I made sure it wasn't cached locally. Does anyone know if the disappearing pass prediction problem is a bug or just a limitation of the prediction code? I'd really like to find out since I have decided not to view passes in the past due to their no longer being listed moments before the predicted time. Thanks, John ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jan 15 2000 - 17:20:19 PST