IRIDFLAR doesn't recognize new iridium elsets
Ruben Velasco (heston@arrakis.es)
Sun, 9 Nov 1997 19:50:48 +0100 (MET)
Hi!
If I haven't missed anything, there's a small problem with our
beloved IRIDFLAR. Please don't flame me if I'm wrong :)
I've just run Rob Matson's program to search for iridium
flares/glints/whatever of the spacecrafts launched a few hours ago.
It seems that the program identifies iridiums looking at the NORAD
number, so new satellites are not taken as iridiums (you have to
"cheat" and change the NORAD # manually in the elsets). For example:
97069A 11/9 05:48:22 UT
1 24792U 97069A 97313.24192493 .00636436 00000-0 81771-1 0 25
2 24792 86.5832 133.7506 0011476 233.9007 126.1152 14.78783918 38
^^^^^
|--->This one belongs to Iridium 8.
I was wondering if Rob could change that in next version (I've got
version 1.2), perhaps reading all the iridium norad numbers from
a cfg file. (This way you don't have to d/load a new version
every time the chinese launch a couple of sats).
Another suggestion would be that the program could be run in batch
mode. Anyway it's a *great* program. We love you, Rob :)
Unfortunately I couldn't see the five Iridiums flying in formation
because there's been a clouds convention here over my city tonight.
Better luck next time.
Well, zorry for my eenglisch and goodbye.
--
Ruben Velasco <heston@arrakis.es>
ICBM: 37.38769N 006.00083W +39M - UTC+0100 Sevilla, Espa=F1a.
PGP KeyID 37219E45 Fingerprint =3D 96575B8713370081 1BC5D43D324B3F4D