Hi All,
I have never been able to get a straight answer on this one, but does InstantTrack or any other program show you the long term non-eclispse/eclispe period, or is there a way to calculate this?
How do we know that PCSAT and UO11 are going to HIT sunlight or not for a period of time?
I can see from Orbitron the realtime, but not anything in the future?
Thanks,
Chris
Hi Chris...
My simple understanding...
If you display the Sun's location and daylight/nighttime line on your display along with the ground coverage of the satellite, the intersection of the daytime line and the satellite's circle of visibility will indicate when the sat is in sunlight.
As most satellites "progress" daily in longitude in relation to standard time you will be able to visualize their approach toward eclipse or non-eclipse.
By increasing your time increment in the program (fast forwarding) you can guesstimate when these transitions will occur in the future.
I say most satellites because some satellites such as the NOAA's are launched to be almost "sun synchronous" and will pass overhead almost at the same time every day.
For the more technical explanation I must bow to the real orbital engineers.
Roger WA1KAT
----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Bloy" [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 8:15 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Long time eclipse prediction
Hi All,
I have never been able to get a straight answer on this one, but does InstantTrack or any other program show you the long term non-eclispse/eclispe period, or is there a way to calculate this?
How do we know that PCSAT and UO11 are going to HIT sunlight or not for a period of time?
I can see from Orbitron the realtime, but not anything in the future?
Thanks,
Chris
Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
At 1:15 PM +0000 1/29/08, Chris Bloy wrote:
I have never been able to get a straight answer on this one, but does InstantTrack or any other program show you the long term non-eclispse/eclispe period, or is there a way to calculate this?
InstantTrack does not have a feature for this purpose.
73 -Paul [email protected] InstantTrack maintenance
Hi All,
Thanks to Mark Hammond for letting me know about Predict and the ability of showing eclipse periods for months in advance! I can now build a chart to show full sunlight periods for PCSAT and UO-11 for which doesn’t look good as Clive has said in his report!.
With all the talk of Emcomm, it would be nice to know when PCSAT is available and like to be full operation by looking at a line graph etc..
Just a though.. Also, may be worth doing one for AO-6 & 8 to see when they get full sunlight in case they decide to return??
All the best and thanks for your help!
Chris
P.S. Maybe one day I can assist in answering questions instead of bombarding everyone! -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Paul Williamson Sent: 29 January 2008 17:00 To: Chris Bloy Cc: amsat-b[email protected] Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Long time eclipse prediction
At 1:15 PM +0000 1/29/08, Chris Bloy wrote:
I have never been able to get a straight answer on this one, but does InstantTrack or any other program show you the long term non-eclispse/eclispe period, or is there a way to calculate this?
InstantTrack does not have a feature for this purpose.
73 -Paul [email protected] InstantTrack maintenance _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
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All -
At the risk of "me too," may I point out that Nova for Windows has an eclipse prediction utility:
Eclipse Date (Z) Start End Duration Interval Sun Illumination Eclipses of ISS (ZARYA) on Wednesday, January 30, 2008
1/30/08 00:48:52 01:24:02 00:35:09 --------- -38.8° 0.0% 1/30/08 02:20:05 02:55:15 00:35:09 00:56:02 -38.9° 0.0% 1/30/08 03:51:19 04:26:30 00:35:11 00:56:03 -39.3° 0.0% 1/30/08 05:22:30 05:57:44 00:35:13 00:56:00 -39.4° 0.0% 1/30/08 06:53:45 07:29:00 00:35:14 00:56:00 -39.5° 0.0% 1/30/08 08:24:57 09:00:12 00:35:14 00:55:56 -39.8° 0.0% 1/30/08 09:56:10 10:31:25 00:35:14 00:55:57 -39.9° 0.0% 1/30/08 11:27:24 12:02:41 00:35:16 00:55:58 -40.2° 0.0% ... etc
73, W9IP
The SCRAP V3.3 program by Bill Bytheway, K7TTY is available from AMSAT will give you the amount of eclipse time per day.
Depending upon the orbit time, dividing the amount of eclipse time by the number of orbits per day will give you the eclipse time per orbit.
sample from a Solar Illumination Pass Prediction Report (actual report is formatted, I just pasted part of it into this message)
WA4SXM's Solar Illumination Calendar For AO-51 Date Mins/Day Sun% Date Mins/Day Sun% ----------------------------------------------------------------- Tue 29Jan08 1440 100.00% Sat 16Feb08 1440 100.00% Wed 30Jan08 1440 100.00% Sun 17Feb08 1440 100.00% Thu 31Jan08 1440 100.00% Mon 18Feb08 1440 100.00% Fri 01Feb08 1440 100.00% Tue 19Feb08 1440 100.00% Sat 02Feb08 1440 100.00% Wed 20Feb08 1440 100.00% Sun 03Feb08 1440 100.00% Thu 21Feb08 1440 100.00% Mon 04Feb08 1440 100.00% Fri 22Feb08 1440 100.00% Tue 05Feb08 1440 100.00% Sat 23Feb08 1440 100.00% Wed 06Feb08 1440 100.00% Sun 24Feb08 1440 100.00% Thu 07Feb08 1440 100.00% Mon 25Feb08 1440 100.00% Fri 08Feb08 1440 100.00% Tue 26Feb08 1440 100.00% Sat 09Feb08 1440 100.00% Wed 27Feb08 1440 100.00% Sun 10Feb08 1440 100.00% Thu 28Feb08 1440 100.00% Mon 11Feb08 1440 100.00% Fri 29Feb08 1440 100.00% Tue 12Feb08 1440 100.00% Sat 01Mar08 1440 100.00% Wed 13Feb08 1440 100.00% Sun 02Mar08 1440 100.00% Thu 14Feb08 1440 100.00% Mon 03Mar08 1440 100.00% Fri 15Feb08 1440 100.00% Tue 04Mar08 1440 100.00% Wed 05Mar08 1440 100.00% Sun 23Mar08 1440 100.00% Thu 06Mar08 1440 100.00% Mon 24Mar08 1440 100.00% Fri 07Mar08 1440 100.00% Tue 25Mar08 1440 100.00% Sat 08Mar08 1440 100.00% Wed 26Mar08 1440 100.00% Sun 09Mar08 1440 100.00% Thu 27Mar08 1440 100.00% Mon 10Mar08 1440 100.00% Fri 28Mar08 1440 100.00% Tue 11Mar08 1440 100.00% Sat 29Mar08 1440 100.00% Wed 12Mar08 1440 100.00% Sun 30Mar08 1440 100.00% Thu 13Mar08 1440 100.00% Mon 31Mar08 1440 100.00% Fri 14Mar08 1440 100.00% Tue 01Apr08 1440 100.00% Sat 15Mar08 1440 100.00% Wed 02Apr08 1440 100.00% Sun 16Mar08 1440 100.00% Thu 03Apr08 1440 100.00% Mon 17Mar08 1440 100.00% Fri 04Apr08 1440 100.00% Tue 18Mar08 1440 100.00% Sat 05Apr08 1440 100.00% Wed 19Mar08 1440 100.00% Sun 06Apr08 1440 100.00% Thu 20Mar08 1440 100.00% Mon 07Apr08 1440 100.00% Fri 21Mar08 1440 100.00% Tue 08Apr08 1440 100.00% Sat 22Mar08 1440 100.00% Wed 09Apr08 1433 99.51% Thu 10Apr08 1386 96.25% Mon 28Apr08 1201 83.40% Fri 11Apr08 1356 94.17% Tue 29Apr08 1186 82.36% Sat 12Apr08 1342 93.19% Wed 30Apr08 1197 83.13% Sun 13Apr08 1323 91.88% Thu 01May08 1170 81.25% Mon 14Apr08 1305 90.63% Fri 02May08 1188 82.50% Tue 15Apr08 1300 90.28% Sat 03May08 1187 82.43%
73, Gould, WA4SXM
----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Bloy" [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 8:15 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Long time eclipse prediction
Hi All,
I have never been able to get a straight answer on this one, but does InstantTrack or any other program show you the long term non-eclispse/eclispe period, or is there a way to calculate this?
How do we know that PCSAT and UO11 are going to HIT sunlight or not for a period of time?
I can see from Orbitron the realtime, but not anything in the future?
Thanks,
Chris
Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
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Chris Bloy -
Gould Smith -
Michael R. Owen -
Paul Williamson -
Roger Kolakowski