Intro

Scott Wilson (wilson@scuch8.psc.sc.edu)
Sun, 17 Mar 1996 21:04:38 -0500 (EST)

Since I'm enjoying this list very much, here is my intro.  I've been in
amateur astronomy since high school, and I would occasionally see the odd
satellite, but I never really got into elsets and predictions until another
guy in our local astronomy club started posting Mir predictions at the meetings.
About that time I ran across the program OrbiTrack from BEK developers on AOL,
which gives you the observation times, altitudes, etc, along with a schedule
of satellites for a particular night, real-time tracking, and some other
interesting information.  I decided to try predicting satellite passes myself.
I wanted to test out the method 'privately', before I started putting my
reputation on the line by telling 50 people about an upcoming pass.  Well, the
first time Mir came sailing overhead at magnitude 0 right on time, I was
hooked.  Now, I like to make up a nightly satellite schedule before any of our
public observing events, and tell people when and where they're coming from
and what their names are.

I'm so glad I had the programs in place to see TSS.  And now, I'm the guy
posting the satellite passes at the astronomy club meetings, only now it's Mir
and the Shuttle, when it's up.

-- 
Scott Wilson
Dept of Physics
Univ of South Carolina
Columbia, SC, USA


President, Midlands Astronomy Club

PGP Public Key on request, or finger @scuch8.psc.sc.edu