Hi: I am both a visual observer and an astroimager. I recently captured the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) passing through the FOV of my LX200/camcorder imaging set-up. The transit was planned using 2-line orbital elements from http://spacelist.org/orbital.shtml. Specifically, the Master TLE Index, Space and Earth Science. The element set is coded "green", 0-5 days old. I used GOOGLE Earth to record my observatory coordinates with great accuracy as my 6' dome appears in the image from space; I used the updated orbital element set to import the HST's path over my location in Software Bisque's TheSky; I constructed a FOV indicator box using the specifications of the Sony ICX903BQ chip in my camcorder. Heavens-Above gave me an idea of the time the HST would pass near Bellatrix, so I found two stars that the predicted path bisected in order to select a location to slew my telescope to and wait for the Hubble to pass through. The captured path of the HSTwas recorded almost 8 arc-minutes south of the predicted path. Since my FOV box is ~ 9 x 11 arc-minutes, it is prudent to "sit and wait" in the correct location for a satellite pass. So, of all the potential variables that are involved, which data point is the likely culprit for the path discrepancy? Here is my video: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vuyLkjSwQV4 If anyone suggets this is an off-topic post, please feel free to contact me at amstuart@sprintmail.com. Thank you. Adam ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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