wrote in news:1129034325.042768.143270
@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Hi, I'm a complete noob, how can I calculate potential viwing times for
Shenzhou 6?

Is a 42 degree orbit even visible from my lattitude (52 degrees norht)?
I guess it is pretty low in the sky.

Unfortunately I am limited to Binocular and naked eye observations as
my 'scope setup is kind of old fashioned these days. 6" newtonian on
an undriven equatorial mount *sigh* I am about 20 miles north of
London so my southern Horizon is pretty poluted anyway.

I too have a an old 6 inch newt on an old undriven EQ mount but
live in the Los Angeles suburbs. You can still do a lot in those
conditions. I've even tracked satellites by swinging the scope
around by hand. On the astro page of my website there is a video
I took of a rocket launch from Vandenberg AFB the other week.

http://www.skywise711.com/astro/index.html

But satellites are easier tracked with eyes or binos.


I guess what I am looking for is a predicition package that lets me put
in my own elements based on the Shenzhou 5 orbit but correcting for the
launch time.

There's much speculation as to even when Shenzou 6 will launch.
There's been discussion of this on the SeeSat forum.

Follow this link: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Oct-2005/0083.html


Any thoughts are welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Tom


Brian
--
http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism
Seismic FAQ: http://www.skywise711.com/SeismicFAQ/SeismicFAQ.html
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