re: How visible are flares???
Richard Fredrick (rfredric@tfs.net)
Wed, 27 May 1998 09:08:34 -0500
Hi all,
In reference to item "c" below I have also found that Alan Pickup's site
has the most reliably updated Iridium elsets. There is at least one other
way to acquire very timely updates: I registered on the OIG website and
copy a text file of the Iridium catalog numbers into the TLE query window.
Now if we could just get a direct link from that radar "fence" in Texas...
At 08:34 5/27/98 -0400, Walter Nissen wrote:
>
>> 1. Do you accurately know the latitude, longitude, and elevation data for
>> your site?
>> 2. Did you correctly enter this data into your prediction program?
>> 3. Did you make a mistake when specifying your time zone? I use UTC for
the
>> date and time.
>> 3. Are your Iridium orbital elements less than one week old?
>
>a. Did you enter your longitude with the correct sign? East is supposed
>to be positive, but some older programs from the Western hemisphere may
>use the old convention. If you are using more than one program, is it
>correct everywhere?
>
>b. Did you confuse standard time and daylight time? UTC is pretty
>convenient. I run my PC on UTC.
>
>c. These elsets are less than 1 week old:
>Iridium 48 3.0 0.0 0.0 6.0 d 780 x 775 km
>1 25107U 97082D 98146.24514426 .00015012 00000-0 53259-2 0 1231
>2 25107 86.3962 284.4531 0003838 66.7932 293.3651 14.34362860 22531
>Iridium 48
>1 25107U 97082D 98141.15255854 -.00003697 +00000-0 -12622-2 0 01588
>2 25107 086.4074 286.5779 0004213 070.0837 290.0753 14.36753424021801
>Yet this morning the culminations computed from them differ by almost 15
>minutes in time and 17 degrees in altitude. Ouch!!
>And the frequently helpful TIM parameter in QuickSat required a
>hair-trigger sensitivity, as it barely blipped.
>The currently accurate, first, one is from Alan Pickup's file. The
>second, I think, is from molczan.tle.
>
>Cheers.
>
>Walter Nissen dk058@cleveland.freenet.edu
>-81.8637, 41.3735, 256m elevation
>
>---
>
>Carpe noctem!
>
>
Sincerely,
Richard Fredrick
rfredric@tfs.net
Fairway, KS USA
39.021N 94.637W