RE: Visual Elements Lists
stu@huston.mdc.com
Wed, 26 Jun 96 09:48:17 PST
>I'm wondering if anyone can supply me with a good site for
>downloading VISUAL elements. I'm using STSPLUS and have been using
>the ftp://archive.afit.af.mil/pub/space/visual.tle to download the
>visual elements but they appear to be somewhat limited as I see
>alot of visual satellites/RB's going over that are not in the
>Visual.TLE that I am downloading. Any help would be greatly
>appreciated.
>
>
I generally download the big files from the JPL site:
ftp://kilroy.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/space/elements/satelem
Then I run the file through a program I wrote called tlesum, which reads the TLE
file and a file called visual.asc, which contains a list of "visual" spacecraft
and their USSPACECOM and COSPAR identifiers. It creates a file called visual.tle
containing only those satellites that were in both files. It also generates a
summary file with inclination, apogee/perigee, etc., for the entire list of
objects. The whole thing is crude, but effective.
Of course, it's a subject of some debate as to what constitutes "visual" - I've
only seen a fraction of the objects in my list.
If anyone is interested, I can upload the program and visual.asc files to the
Oxford site.
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Stu Huston McDonnell Douglas Aerospace
stu@huston.mdc.com A3-Y957 M/S 11-3
(714) 896-4787 5301 Bolsa Ave.
FAX: (714) 896-2305 Huntington Beach, CA 92647
06/26/96 09:48:17
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Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
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