> So, what do you do with elements when you don't have a computer? > You use a > 3 inch diameter globe (filled with pennies) and a piece of string of > course. > The first thing that you do is hope that the eccentricity is close > enough to > zero so that you can ignore it. The only two numbers that are > really > important are the inclination and the period. Using a known pass, > you lay > the string on the globe so that it passes through your site and has > max/min > latitude the same as the inclination. Now you can make future > predictions > since you know where Mir will be in 15, 16, 30, 31, 46 or 47 orbits > from > now. During these passes the Earth will have rotated approximately > 1, 2 or > 3 revolutions. Of course, you had to make up for the difference > between > "approximately 1 rev" and the actual amount of time. Using TLE data, I using a known H-A prediction for my site for SeaSat 1. I used the data to project when the satellite would be visible 9 days later. My prediction was only 4 minutes off the H-A prediction (which are almost always +/- 10 seconds that far into the future) !!! So this works! Thanks a lot for sharing this with us. > Using this method I successfully predicted a pass at my dark sky > site more > than 150 miles away from the prediction city. If you don't believe > me, I > have a picture with Mir's trail about 5 degrees above the horizon to > prove > it (I didn't actually see it). Randy, if you're listening, can you explain how to factor the inclination of the satellite into the calculations. I don't see why it matters (for the sake of calculation) . Also, is there a way to estimate the altitude of the satellite when observed (I understand how to determine in what area of the sky the satellite will "peak" in). Thanks very much! ------------------------------ Jonathan T. Wojack tlj18@juno.com 39.706d N 75.683d W 4 hours behind UT (-4) ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jun 26 2001 - 14:39:18 PDT