Like most of you, I have also noticed significant differences between the magnitudes reported by H-A and those that I've observed. After years of depending on H-A, I just downloaded Mike McCants' Quicksat, and I want to take the opportunity to thank Mike publicly for making this code available in the public domain. As an old DOShead myself, Mike, I can tell you that the elegant simplicity of your code is much appreciated. To all the rest of you still using H-A exclusively (it's good "in a pinch"), I downloaded Mike's program for two reasons. First, no matter how I try, I can't "fool" H-A to display past Mag 5. You can change the last part of the URL all you want, but typing anything in over Mag 5 still results in no more than that. Here in the mountains of West Virginia we can get down to Mag 6 (1X that is!) easily on a good night. Besides, if H-A is going to routinely underestimate magnitudes anyway, they're going to leave out a bunch of stuff that I might be able to see. I especially enjoy the multiples e.g. NOSS, which are often right in that range. As for magnitudes, and those of you that have noted the discrepancies re: ISS, you should know that Quicksat (with the accompanying quicksat.mag) is much more accurate, too. On two ISS passes tonight, H-A lists the mags as 0.6 and 1.4, as compared to Mike's -1.3 and -0.4 respectively. From experience, we all know who's more accurate, don't we? By the way, the second (and main) reason that I downloaded Quicksat was so that I could add TLE's that are posted in this list to my predictions. H-A doesn't add them as quickly, and Mike couldn't have made them easier to add to Quicksat (unless you don't know how to use Wordpad or an equivalent!). I was interested in seeing parts of the recent Atlas 5 that was launched. It had an awfully large fairing around the upper stage. I didn't even know if anything that big would make it to orbit, but I knew that it wouldn't last too long, and that I wouldn't have much of a chance of seeing without using TLE's posted to this list. I saw two items listed here (27852 & 27853), but alas, no passes at my location. Thanks, Mike, for making it possible to check! Best Regards, Art Almost Heaven Group HC 67 Box 539 BB Renick WV 24966 Phone 304-497-2610 Fax 304-497-2698 e-mail art@almostheaven.net http://www.almostheaven.net/ ---------------------------------------------- Offering direct sales of Saunas, Steamrooms and the widest selection of Pool, Spa, Sauna and Hot Tub Equipment worldwide. ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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