I very much appreciate everyone's advice even if it isn't something I will use right now. I like the software I have but, cost for multiple computer usage is my biggest problem. I can use a power point projector but that does not allow each participant to work with the subject matter themselves. I have a question that I more or less asked earlier but am elaborating on now. That is, does anyone know of a planetarium program, free ort not, -other than TheSky- that shows satellites moving in real time against a background of stars? Up until a few hours ago I assumed that most of them did. Nuts. Maybe there is something less expensive than TheSky. The two CDs we purchased a few years ago were about $240.00 for a single computer; it may be less these days. The unfortunate thing is we had to get much more than a basic program to work with TLEs. I'm apparently spoiled by real time graphics. For example, while outside with my laptop I see a satellite passing through a certain constellation and look up and there it is (assuming it's bright enough to see). The only thing better would be if the satellite image would get bigger or change color if the predicted brightness was greater. TheSky also lets a user speed through time at any of a number of different intervals, forward or back. [[Do other programs do that?]] TheSky can be set to show the path of the satellite against the star field but does not show time marks. I have to determine that for the seconds (not for the hours or minutes) by going to a Data file, but that's only one click away. Thanks! Tom Iowa USA 42 28' 24.84" by 92 21' 36.9" or 42.47357 by -92.36025 about 300 meters above sea level -6 hours offset to UTC during standard time months ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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