Re: Observing satellites during eclipse
Bjoern Gimle (bjorn@tt-tech.se)
Thu, 19 Feb 1998 17:20:15 +0100
I have written a program to generate multiple Skymap .cfg files,
to position the observer at the tip of the shadow cone, so all
objects passing the umbra (total eclips) at that time (!) appear
to transit the Moon (and hidden Sun) disk.
A variant, using a point on the center line, but at 1.4 the Moon-to-tip
distance instead of 1.0, shows all objects with less than 50% light
within a 0.7 degree circle. (For all practical purposes, 2.0 would
mean 50% if the satellite transits the Sun, with Moon in the center)
The whole package is in http://www.algonet.se/~b_gimle/solarecl.zip,
awkwardly documented and linked from
http://www.algonet.se/~b_gimle/solarecl.htm
Extract the files in a directory where you can run 'skymap solarecl.cfg'.
Correct the file names in solarecl.cfg, or from Skymap menus, so that
it does produce a Moon and does search and display satellite tracks.
If you have QBasic on your system (C:\DOS\ ?), run 'qbasic /run solarecl'.
If you don't, make sure you have 'brun40.exe' from my programs/ibmpc/ page.
With this, you can use 'solarecl.exe' instead, and if you want to run a
large number of plots, edit the file solarecl.in, and run
'solarecl.exe <solarecl.in'
(command /C solarecl.exe <solarecl.in from Win95/NT)
This creates a skymap_e.bat, which creates plot (and report!) files
named per your specifications.
For a quick test, try time 19,19,53 , and use a small TLE file that
contains the #22285 Zenith-2 rocket elset.
I can't use Transit search, since SkyMap assumes the observer is
rotating with the Earth, and that speed does not match the speed
and direction the tip travels very well.
--
---------------------------------------------------------------
-- bjorn@tt-tech.se (office) b_gimle@algonet.se (home) --
-- 59.2237N, 18.2286E, 44 m http://www.algonet.se/~b_gimle --
-- SeeSat-L / Visual Satellite Observer Home Page found at --
-- http://www.satellite.eu.org/satintro.html --
---------------------------------------------------------------