Pole of MIR 'ORBIT'

In order to track MIR by rotating camera/telescope about one axis
(which points to a 'pole'), the pole required is NOT the pole of the
orbit (as given in TLEs)[That would only work if your camera were at the
centre of the Earth]. What is required is the pole of the transit-path
as seen from your particular site (which does depend on latitude, etc.)
In fact the pole of transit-path moves during a transit, its own track
depending on the Elements such as eccentricity. For a near-circular orbit,
I seem to recall that the pole of transit-path describes a curly 'm' or
'w' rather like a small greek omega, but this remains to be confirmed by
actual calculation.
best wishes Russell
Received on Sat Jun 17 1995 - 11:22:02 UTC