Re: TSS decay info
jeff hunt (jhunt@eagle1.eaglenet.com)
Wed, 20 Mar 96 20:24:35 EST
Kim Allen writes,
>Re the shuttle launch. I'm just entering the world of satellite tracking and
>have downloaded spysat & apparently need to find somewhere to find
>downloadable elsets to load into spysat. I see where lots of you "post"
>elsets here, but how do I translate those into a file that I can load into
>spysat or where on the web can I find elsets that I can use?
>Thanks very much-
>Kim
Do you mean SatSpy? If you do, here's how:
You can download updated daily elements from a lot of places. See
http://www.grove.net/~tkelso/
http://oigsysop.atsc.allied.com
Most of the files will work directly on Satspy, but if there is embedded text
you will have edit it out manually or use a small utility like Inputle which
will automatcially edit out text and put the files in the proper format. You
can it find on
ftp://ftp.physics.ox.ac.uk/pub/sat/
It's called inputle.zip in the appropriate subdirectory (which I don't recall
right now).
You can name the TLE file(s) that you use
*.els or *.txt (* is any 8 letter name you assign). Satspy is set up to
use the suffix .els but it will read any suffix name you want as long as you
tell it what suffix to look for.
You can down load 'visible' element files from the producer of Satspy at:
http://www.usa.net/acappella/satspy/download.htm
They are updated weekly but are about 3 days old by the time you get them.
There are about a 1000 visible sats listed. Some are less visible than
others.
Of course to follow the Shuttle/Mir mission you want the most recent elements
for the Shuttle and Mir (16609). The Shuttle will be changing its orbit to
catch up with Mir. Mir's orbit will remain relatively the same through out
the mission.
You can subscribe to get the Shuttle elements by e-mail and get several
updates a day. For details, see
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dcottle
There is another e-mail TLE provider listed on
http://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/sat/otherinfo.html
His first name is Gary. Sorry, I forgot his last name.
These updates will have embedded text in them so you have to edit it out to
allow Satspy to use the info.
There's a lot of good documentation in SatSpy.
Hope this helps; shout for additional help at
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Jeff Hunt, Charlotte Hall, Md. 38.51N, 76.76W
E-mail: jhunt@eagle1.eaglenet.com
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