Iridium Format...Final Version

Ron Lee (ronlee@pcisys.net)
Mon, 22 Sep 1997 20:29:47 

1)   NORAD:  NORAD number.

2)   Date:   YY-MM-DD  (year-month-day)
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
3)   Time:  UTC of course.   

4)   Dir:   Direction of satellite travel.  Seems that N (north)  or
S (south) are adequate but some far northern/southern observers may use
a different direction

5)   aI:    Azimuth of Iridium at max flare...measured eastward from north

6)   eI:    Elevation of max flare point..also called Altitude by some

7)   aM:    Azimuth of maximum elevation/altitude for this pass

8)   eM:    Maximum elevation/altitude

9)   aS:    Azimuth of the Sun at max flare.

10)  eS:   Elevation of sun at max flare

11)  Phs:   Sun phase angle.    This is the Skymap convention: 
Satellite-Observer-Sun.    Quicksat users should subtract their value from
180.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

12)  Dur:   Duration of flare in seconds.  Since it is subjective when to
start the timing, exact values are not critical.

13)  Mag:   Magnitude of max flare to whole magnitude is enough.

14)  Obs:   Observer initials.  Now three spaces.
                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
15)  COSPAR:  International designator.

The actual entry is the third line below:

NORAD   date       time   Dir  aI eI  aM  eM  aS   eS Phs  Dur Mag Obs  COSPAR
xxxxx  yy-mm-dd  hh:mm:ss  x  xxx xx  xxx xx  xxx -xx xxx  tt  Sn  III
yy-nnn p

xxxxx  97-08-21  20:27:00  S  028 30  xxx xx  324 -13 Unk  20  -1   BG
97-043 A

        10        20        30        40        50        60        70
  80
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