Viewing Taurus/STEX launch

Bjoern Gimle (b_gimle@usa.net)
1 Oct 98 16:13:31 MET DST 

Rob Matson's SkyMap allows you to find the correct azimuth for the first
seconds of the flight, but also a star background to help you find that
azimuth. If my very rough approximation of a launch profile is reasonably
correct, you can also get an indication of the trajectory, for aiming
a camera.

When you insert your own lat/long (from the menu, or in the .cfg file)
you will have to guess the azimuth until you find the track.
MapTime=  must be set to the launch time.

TAURUS.CFG
----------
[SkyMap]
StarFile=hip8.dat
CatEpoch=J2000
EphemFile=Taurus.trj
MapTitle=Taurus/STEX Launch 1998 OCT 02 10:11:04 UTC
CatJD=2451545.000000
Lat=34.02
Long=-118.153
Zone= -7.0
MapDate= 1998/10/ 2
MapTime=10:11: 4
Azim=270
Elev= 30
FOV= 60
PlotMode=Rocket
LocalStart=Off
LocalTag=Off
LabelStar=On
PCTime=Off
SatJD( 0)=2451095.415278
SatDur( 0)=  180.00000
SatName( 1)=Atlas/HotBird, 8 Oct 98, 21:58 UT
NORAD( 1)=77777
1 77777U 98 0XX A 98281.93493519  .00000030  00000-0  00000-0 0    10 
2 77777  24.6200 167.2000 7322000 178.6000   1.7490  2.27400000    10 
SatJD( 1)=2451095.455556
SatDur( 1)=  120.00000
SatJD(11)=2451095.455556
SatDur(11)=  120.00000
AutoJD=2451095.415278
AutoTT=1
AllFileTT=1


TAURUS.TRJ
----------
  0 34.725 -120.60    0.0
 10 34.724 -120.60    1.3
 20 34.719 -120.60    5.2
 30 34.706 -120.60   11.5
 40 34.681 -120.60   20.1
 50 34.640 -120.60   30.9
 60 34.580 -120.60   43.6
 70 34.498 -120.60   57.8
 80 34.390 -120.60   73.2
 90 34.255 -120.60   89.4
100 34.090 -120.60  106.0
110 33.894 -120.60  122.5
120 33.666 -120.60  138.4


(This was calculated from constant acceleration of 26 m/s2 for 300 sec.
 and tilt of 0.5 deg/s for 180 sec, launch azimuth=180 deg.!
 If anyone has a better launch profile, please post it)

Bjoern Gimle

PS:
With the launch time for Atlas/Hotbird, and the coordinates of e.g. Sydney
and the following file built from Keith Stein's / Ron Lee's posts, and
some guesswork, you can locate the depletion burn (and the satellite by
changing main menu F5 to Satellite) 

HOTBIRD.TRJ
-----------
3500 -24.220 087.200 6930.0
3513 -24.204 087.341 6946.3255
3543 -24.120 088.100 7000.0
3573 -24.040 088.888 7055.0



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