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fun

Postby bill fish » Aug 25, 2007 12:02 pm

Hi all


Just thought I'd share something interesting I've been playing with recently...

http://www.heavens-above.com/


The main attraction (for me) of the website is its easy to use to predict when/what satellites are visible from a given location...

I used to do alot of satellite observing back in the day...but this website makes it much easier and precise...

You do have to register...and I did and it doesnt seem to generate any unwanted spam....

Anyhow...I used it a few days ago to predict an "international" space station pass...roughly the day after the shuttle had left it....it was really cool to see the bright space station cruising overhead...with a somewhat fainter shuttle trailing it by about 10 degrees....

For general satellite predictions...just using your city for location if fine.....BUTTT if you want "iridium flare" predictions....you really need you location to within 5 miles or so...if not more for accurate brightness predictions...so get out your gps OR go to google earth and zoom in on where you live to get your lats and longs....

Now, using this site is pretty easy...need to understand compass directions, what elevation means, 24 hour military style time...and brightness...measured in magnitudes....

I'll explain magnitudes.....the brightess star in the sky is about magnitude 0...faintest you can see with your eye...roughly 6.......and a zero is 2.512 times brighter than a 1 and 2.512*2.512 brighter than a 2 etc etc....and 0 is 100 times brighter than a 5...

Stuff brighter than 0 is expessed in negative values....a -1 is 2.5 times brighter than a 0 and -3 is 2.5*2.5*2.5 brighter than a 0....

Anyhow hope you get the picture...satellites are fun to watch....and large negative number iridium flares are pretty impressive (also make sure your watch is accurately set for those as you only get a few seconds of brightness)...

If anyone here plays with stuff and has trouble...email me at Bllfs6@aol.com ....and I will try to help ya out!

Blll
bill fish
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Postby MUD » Aug 25, 2007 2:20 pm

I still think they're UFO's! :rofl:
MUD
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