Re: Finding geosat passes in Heavens Above

From: Tony Beresford (dberesford@adam.com.au)
Date: Wed Apr 05 2006 - 21:35:25 EDT

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    At 06:17 6/04/06, Shoemaker, Michael A wrote:
    >With regards to finding passes for visual observation, does anyone know
    >if Heavens Above will return queries for geosats?  I've tried entering a
    >few geosats that have orbital locations around my longitude, but none
    >seem to have any passes.  I'm wondering if the algorithms that drive the
    >site make some assumptions on the brightness given the distance.  i.e.
    >it's a geosat that's far away so it assumes they're too dim to see.  But
    >I know from reading a few posts on the SeeSat archives that people have
    >successfully observed flashing geosats.
    >Any thoughts?
    > 
    Its a property of the algorithm Chris Peat uses to decide visibility, it
    has nothing to do with apparent brightness. That only has effect in the
    daily prediction menu choice. If you select a satellite for prediction
    via the select a satellite menu choice, it calculates magnitude if
    it has a standaed magnitude or prints a question mark if no brightness
    information known.
    
    Not only a problem with geostationary and near GEO, but any high orbit
    like ETS6 or the molniya type orbit as well.
    
    You will have to use DOS programmes like Mike McCants HIGHFLY or
    Rob Matson's SKYMAP, or the satellite side of planetarium type
    programmes like Guide or  Skymap Pro
    
    Tony Beresford
    
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