Re: Mir/Shuttle pass observed

Bryan Dort (bdort@freeway.net)
Fri, 26 Sep 1997 08:58:23 -0400

> But apparently I didn't wait long enough for Shuttle!  My elset yielded 
> a pass with a near-zenith culmination at 12:04:39, less than 8 minutes 
> behind Mir.  The solar elevation at that time was -4.5; I could still 
> see Capella, which was more or less near where it was to have passed.  
> But if the Shuttle was still 15 minutes behind on this orbit, the 
> culmination would have been at 12:11, and I quit looking about 12:06.  
> I thought it was more likely to be early than late....
Ed,

I was using the Rev 3 elset for STS-86 and the latest Molczan for MIR:

STS-86
1 24964U 97055A   97269.25370023  .00019982  16825-8  87255-4 0    21
2 24964  51.6532 298.1148 0046442 120.3668  21.7071 15.82214944    39
Mir Complex     32.7  4.2  0.0  1.6 v
1 16609U 86017A   97268.70362797  .00004778  00000-0  63562-4 0  6457
2 16609  51.6546 300.7345 0004156 165.1410 194.9726 15.60274922662715

The pass I observed was right on with these.

The one thing I've learned while Sat Observing is patience.

Bryan
--
Bryan Dort - bluespruce@bigfoot.com 
Programmer / Analyst - Alpena General Hospital - http://www.agh.org
Alpena, MI  USA   45.0524N  83.4575W 200m