Hello to all, well, in the past observing satellites challenged me, whereas today it might challenge governments as I remember a former thread. I myself commenced with satellite observing in 1984 during a kind of sabbatical between school & university. By that time I tried to transform the TLE-Data into transit predictions using my HP-41CX calculator from scratch - and failed. However I studied physics (for other reasons) and some months ago I retried the project. I didn't succeed yet for numerical problems, but I think I'm quite close to the solution. Of course with modern programs, predictions are no longer a problem and using numerical standard procedures fitting TLEs into observations obviously works quite well, but in many cases the power of paper & pencil is sufficient to solve such a highly sophisticated problem. It's always fascinating how easily friends can be impressed if you see a satellite (e.g. the brightly visible ISS) and predict using only your thumb and a stopwatch when and in about which part of the sky it will reappear during its next orbit. Kind Regards, J. -------- Original-Nachricht -------- > Datum: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 13:30:20 -0700 > Von: Roger <roger.in.eugene@gmail.com> > An: SeeSat-L <seesat-l@satobs.org> > Betreff: Why do people look at satellites? > Just wondering, what's the reason some of you watch satellites, work > related? Purely hobbiest? > > Any goals for people,anybody have a 'must see' list they try to > complete? I've been lurking for a few years, so I know some of you > specialize in types of satellites. Even if I don't post, I do > appreciate some of the observations people make. > > I first started intentionally seeking out satellites back in Sky-lab > days. Later on, after the shuttle missions started, I started > watching those when I could. I did manage to catch the Mir before > it came back down. > Lately, I've been more of a watcher, than try to figure out what I > saw. I do want to try for the hubble when I'm far enough south, but > usually have to wait for vacation for that. > > ~44N ~123W > Roger > _______________________________________________ > Seesat-l mailing list > http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l -- NEU: FreePhone - 0ct/min Handyspartarif mit Geld-zurück-Garantie! Jetzt informieren: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/freephone _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
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