update for S&T article, and more
Walter Nissen (dk058@cleveland.freenet.edu)
Mon, 20 Jul 1998 11:47:20 -0400 (EDT)
Back around May 1st, it looked like Mir would make one of those epochal,
"Biblical" passes over Fort Collins, the kind that have hooked so many
visual observers, so Dan Laszlo, or S&T, choose that morning to illustrate
the features of QuickSat, presenting QS output on page 71 of the August
issue of S&T.
Unfortunately, it now seems the pass of Mir will be merely eye-popping,
not epochal. Some non-fanatics may prefer to catch the brighter pass of
Mir in the evening and trade sleep for the morning passes of the other
objects.
I have only a very old version of QuickSat, one which meets my needs very
well. So I can't quite replicate the QS output which appeared in S&T.
There are even a few details I had to fudge. The times of passage,
altitudes, magnitudes, and other geometrical predictions below are almost
certainly much more accurate than those printed in S&T. If you find my
output confusing, take from it only those most important predicted values
and let the rest go. Some kind soul might post an output here from an
updated version of QS.
Note that the order of appearance of the objects will be different than
that published months ago, and that the objects will appear at different
times. In the original published version, note that QS's "Tim" parameter
very nicely identified the potential problems. This is still subject to
revision as the week progresses, but right now it looks like the time
differences will be:
EGP 30 seconds later (visible higher)
TiPS 199 seconds EARLIER
OAO 2 10 seconds EARLIER
OAO 3 24 seconds EARLIER
Mir 1874 seconds EARLIER (different part of sky)
DMSP 34 seconds EARLIER
I should say that I don't recommend using VIT (village idiot time) as in
this example, finding UTC more accurate and, ultimately, simpler. Nor the
deprecated unit "miles", nor the deprecated West longitude. Actual
longitude would be -105.050. Personally, I like West longitude (QS does
too, I guess), but I feel agreement, and the resulting consistent usage,
are more important than holding on to obsolete forms. I would question
those who would hold on to az/el (which was wrong from its first use
earlier this Century) or nomenclatures like GMT, Zulu, or keps, if they
really want to pass these messes onto our children and
great-grandchildren and their great-grandchildren.
Cheers.
Walter Nissen dk058@cleveland.freenet.edu
-81.8637, 41.3735, 256m elevation
---
If you are a minute late, you will miss it.
If you are a minute early, you will see it.
---
40.500 105.050 4930. Fort Collins, CO <-- 2000 7.0 30 F F F T F
*** 1998 July 24 Fri evening *** Times are PM MDT *** 318 1052
H M S TIM AL AZI C U MAG REVS HGT SHD RNG EW PHS R A DEC
16609 Mir Complex -1.0 -3
9 18 36 .2 35 139 C 50 -1.7 103.4 237 110 391 1.9 27 1841 -5.5
16908 EGP 3.5 f1 flashes to 4 or 5
9 35 55 .0 47 6 C 94 5.9 112.8 927 896 1181 .7 102 1851 82.3
16908 EGP 3.5 f1 flashes to 4 or 5
11 38 50 .0 74 28 C 117 5.0 113.9 925 527 954 .9 73 1939 53.6
*** 1998 July 25 Sat morning *** Times are AM MDT *** 318 1052
H M S TIM AL AZI C U MAG REVS HGT SHD RNG EW PHS R A DEC
16908 EGP 3.5 f1 flashes to 4 or 5
1 39 10 .0 40 246 131 5.5 114.9 925 35 1279 .7 47 1750 10.3
23937 TiPS 5.0 6T
3 8 36 2.6 67 309 C 48 5.7 932.1 621 279 666 1.2 71 2025 51.6
3597 OAO 2 5.0 3G2 can flash up to -2
3 43 14 .2 42 190 C 103 5.4 141.7 471 53 666 1.4 33 2225 -7.4
6153 OAO 3 (Cop) 4.5 4g0
3 43 31 .2 46 178 C 87 4.7 141.0 445 85 591 1.5 43 23 2 -3.6
16609 Mir Complex -1.0 -3
3 44 5 .2 47 31 C 120 -1.3 107.6 237 63 314 2.3 112 3 4 66.5
14506 DMSP 2-2 4.0 4g2 can flash to 2.5 on zenith
3 52 11 .0 37 266 C 39 4.9 128.8 508 127 775 .8 42 1911 19.9
OAO 2 3.0 2.2 0.0 6.3 d
1 03597U 68110A 98196.62496038 +.00000091 +00000-0 +32817-4 0 00111
2 03597 034.9977 290.6024 0005252 128.9703 231.1455 14.42423620557929
Copernicus 3.0 2.2 0.0 6.3 d
1 06153U 72065A 98196.77012508 +.00000139 +00000-0 +3w702-4 0 01671
2 06153 035.0095 311.4031 0008206 017.9660 342.1318 14.53288958372857
DMSP B5D2-2 6.4 1.7 0.0 6.5 v
1 14506U 83113A 98197.40961026 .00000138 00000-0 78483-4 0 777
2 14506 98.5697 333.8819 0012496 143.6700 216.5329 14.23995093761186
Mir Complex 32.7 4.2 0.0 1.6 v
1 16609U 86017A 98199.55549267 .00009084 00000-0 87649-4 0 640x
2 16609 51.6601 247.7119 0006596 234.8248 125.2124 15.65774395708971
EGP 2.2 0.0 0.0 6.7 d
1 16908U 86061A 98197.13377791 -.00000083 +00000-0 +10000-3 0 03043
2 16908 050.0078 183.6702 0011195 145.3637 214.7929 12.44419299210900
TiPS 2.5 0.0 0.0 6.3 d
1 23937U 96029 F 98138.05883391 .00000650 00000-0 80149-3 0 05
2 23937 63.4144 125.6140 0059000 356.4353 3.5647 13.64278244 06