Dear Greg and others, Because this is my first e-mail in 2006 I take the opportunity to whish all SeeSatters a healthy en fortunate new year with many happy observing hours and fruitful discussions and data and information exchange via SeeSat. Greg wrote: > (3) Have made some more changes to my system - now have GUIDE running > in real time and whenever I spot something interesting I merely > punch in the azimuth and elevation and can immediately see what > is in my field of view from a database of about 9000 objects. > Hopefully I will now be able to recognize an unknown almost > immediately and follow it as long as I am able. It does cause > a small problem in that I have only one set of eyes and now have > to watch 5 screens when tracking and operate three keyboards! > (Ever typed on the wrong keyboard and wondered why nothing > happened?) > > > GUIDE is by far the best program for this sort of operation - Ive > tried them all ( I think!) and more expensive programs fail > dismally! If you are serious about optical/video tracking/positional > work then buy yourself a copy - its under $100 and worth every cent. > Visit http://www.projectpluto.com for more details. Unfortunately > there is no demo version available - but as myself and others have > found it delivers the goods. I get no commission for this - just a > very satsified user since version 2 - its now at version 8 and > comes on two CD's. > I completely agree with you that Guide is a very good program. I apply it for imprecise satellite identification when provided with recent TLE's. I use the option to indicatie my field of view. When I see another satellite while following a planned one, I record the time and direction of motion with respect to the satellite I follow. Therefore I use a tiny voice-recorder that I can keep in my hands toghether with my binoculars. Afterwards I feed this time in Guide and position on the satellite I was following. In most cases it almost immediately shows the other satellite I saw unintentionally. The motion of direction is either the confirmation or rejection of the identification. I use this program in my lectures about satellite observing. By selecting a TLE-file with geosats only I can demonstrate how crowded the geosationary belt is. By selecting a TLE-file with LEO I can show how crowded it is closer to us. This is just an exchange of experience. I do not yet know the options of for example Rob Matson's Skymap. It should be very good as well. Unitil now I haven't got the time to work with it. May be I get a chance this year. Bram Dorreman. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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