Re: Coursen magnitudes

Floyd Weaver (fweaver@nbn.net)
Thu, 25 Jul 1996 00:04:33 -0400 (EDT) 

On Wed, 24 Jul 1996, Lew Gramer wrote:

> 
> Just curious about what spawned this particular personal attack? Is this the 
> kind of scrutiny most newer observers are generally subjected to? (For the 
> record, I'm a regular meteor observer, and I don't know my long and lat to 
> better than an arcminute either! I guess it's more important for sat obs... ?)

   I thought I'd jump in here and give some infornmation about my sat 
seeing. I am NOT and I repeat NOT very time/location acurate. I am locate 
at (or make that near) 40.3" north and 76.3" west. That is the closest I 
have figured it out. I do not carry a watch. When I watch for satilites, 
I often have my scanner on to the local police freqs, listning to their 
time. I do have computers set to the time from tick.usno.navy.mil, so I 
have a good idea of what clocks (and the police stations) are 
close. I of course cannot get accurate technical information on a sat 
pass with such rough numbers. That has not been my aim yet. I am 
intruged(sp) by the accuracey some of the seesaters use, and I might some 
day join them.

   What can I see? Mir and shuttles most certianly. I have see a few noss 
trios, and one time I tried for Tips. That time was 5UTC July 21 on a 50 
some elv. pass in the west. After searching for a number of minutes I 
picked it up just before max elv. I did loss it for a time, but then 
found it again and followed it till shadow entry less than 20 degree off 
the horizon. Cool site it was! I used 10 X 50 binoculars. The sky was 
very clear, for a summer night in the northeastern US.

   I wrote this message to let others know that they do not have to 
feel belittled because they do not have there location and such down to 
the smallest measurement. I find sat tracking an enjoyable hobby, as I do 
it, and I am sure other find it the same way. I want to thank the more 
technical minded for the accurate elements they supply over seesat-l. 
With out them us "not so technicals" would not have it as easy. Seesat-l 
has very amatuar to highly experianced watcher. I hope both can find 
seesat-l an informative mailing list. I am for the most part satisfied 
with the content of this list, and look forward for more.

Clears sky, bright sats
Floyd Weaver

P.O. BOX 280
FREDRICKSBURG, PA. 17026
E-Mail      fweaver@nbn.net
Web page    http://users.nbn.net/~fweaver