>I wanted to plot the position of the Apollo 16 Saturn IVB booster in >trans-lunar trajectory (on the way to the Moon) in 1972. There is a tle on Jonathan's site. It says: 1 06301U 72096 B 72342.71041666 .00000000 +00000-0 +00000-0 00011 2 06301 028.4240 344.4490 9704960 154.9150 154.7300 00.08500276 00011 For the origin of this tle, it says: "jcm by hand: MA is TA" I ran "SeeSat 4.0" against this tle and it is clear that the mean anomaly should not be 154 at this epoch. I changed the elset to: 1 06301U 72096 B 72342.71041666 .00000000 +00000-0 +00000-0 00011 2 06301 028.4240 344.4490 9704960 154.9150 0.0000 00.08500276 00011 This produced the following results for Austin, TX: 1972 DEC 7/8 UT time alt azi R.A. dec range hgt sun 1900:00 23 168 18 27.5 -35.5 21785 19662 151 2000:00 28 175 18 53.8 -31.7 29792 27885 147 2100:00 30 186 19 8.3 -29.3 36977 35165 144 2200:00 29 199 19 18.0 -27.5 43665 41788 141 2300:00 26 212 19 25.2 -26.1 50029 47917 140 0000:00 19 224 19 31.2 -25.0 56166 53653 138 1972 DEC 8/9 UT time alt azi R.A. dec range hgt sun 1846:00 22 130 20 37.7 -18.8 130447 128048 129 1946:00 31 142 20 37.6 -18.7 132877 131030 128 2046:00 38 158 20 37.3 -18.6 135424 133948 128 2146:00 41 176 20 36.9 -18.5 138118 136804 128 2246:00 40 195 20 36.5 -18.4 140973 139601 128 2346:00 35 212 20 36.1 -18.2 143987 142341 128 0046:00 27 226 20 36.0 -18.0 147143 145027 127 0146:00 17 237 20 36.1 -17.8 150411 147660 127 1972 DEC 9/10 UT time alt azi R.A. dec range hgt sun 1855:00 23 127 20 56.7 -16.3 188332 185964 125 1955:00 33 139 20 56.4 -16.3 189648 187858 125 2055:00 40 155 20 56.0 -16.3 191116 189721 125 2155:00 43 174 20 55.4 -16.2 192763 191551 125 2255:00 43 194 20 54.9 -16.1 194605 193351 124 2355:00 37 212 20 54.4 -16.0 196637 195120 124 0055:00 29 226 20 54.1 -15.9 198842 196859 124 0155:00 19 238 20 54.0 -15.8 201189 198568 124 1972 DEC 10/11 UT time alt azi R.A. dec range hgt sun 1859:00 23 125 21 7.9 -14.9 225946 223599 123 1959:00 33 138 21 7.6 -14.9 226598 224843 123 2059:00 41 153 21 7.2 -14.9 227411 226064 123 2159:00 45 173 21 6.7 -14.8 228414 227262 123 2259:00 44 193 21 6.1 -14.8 229620 228438 123 2359:00 39 212 21 5.7 -14.7 231029 229592 123 0059:00 31 227 21 5.3 -14.6 232622 230723 123 0159:00 21 238 21 5.1 -14.5 234367 231833 123 The "ephem" program says that the moon was at RA 21 16, Dec -13.1 at 0200 UT on Dec 11, 1972. Dist 244000 miles. The elongation was only 60 degrees. The first night out, Dec 8 at 0000 UT, the objects were very low in the southwest after sunset. Mike McCants ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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