The TLE I used is the one from the NASA spaceflight website which I got about 2 hours before event time: ISS 1 25544U 98067A 04030.38641742 .0002000 00000-0 20000-3 0 9012 2 25544 51.6275 312.2703 0007708 107.1260 253.0743 15.66615930 16547 I went with your suggestion of never using a "future" TLE, and went with the one closest to event time, but not after. Interestingly enough, there was a TLE from heaven's above which was even closer to event time. The ISS path from this TLE was not as accurate as the one from NASA (although the time of the transit was closer -- 21:43:40.7 vs 21:43:40.2 -- My estimate based on WWV was that the transit occurred very close to 21:43:40.7): ISS_HA 1 25544U 98067A 04030.84074947 .00015969 00000-0 15407-3 0 1037 2 25544 51.6300 309.9574 0007833 109.2562 295.0015 15.66638907296617 Since I pretty much could pick my location, I selected the observing site based on the path the ISS would take over the lunar surface. I selected a point on the moon which would be easy to find (Low in the south where the terminator ends). If I had done some more research on the lunar surface, a better choice would probably have been to try for a spot which would put the path near the north terminator -- or even one which didn't include the terminator at all. It would have been a little longer of drive, but I would have ended up with an image where the ISS detail would be easier to see. Sky map pro doesn't show lunar features, so I'll have to use a moon map. I'll remember this for the next time. One other thing ... the next time might be on Monday! It would be a drive of about 60+ miles for me (to Sacramento), but might be worth it --- an ISS range of only 246 miles. If I can get off work early, I might go for it. > Thomas Fly <tfly@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote: > Despite the lower amount of ISS structural detail, compared to your November 8 > transit, the rugged lunar landscape in the background makes this one rather > nice! > SkyMapPro's plot appears to be dead-on; what TLE did you use to make it? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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