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Shenzhou 6 viewing times
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 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. Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks in advance, Tom |
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I too have a an old 6 inch newt on an old undriven EQ mount...
...I took of a rocket launch from Vandenberg AFB the other week. Cool, I'm impressed with those results. But satellites are easier tracked with eyes or binos. Yeah, that's my plan, I have an ancient RAF pair with a nice wide field of view, I'll probably give them a go. Follow this link: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Oct-2005/0083.html Thanks for the link, like I say I'm new to satelite watching so it's all good. I notice heavens-above now has some orbit data for it, though I guess the biggest problem with this is that it's likely to manouver some more. Thanks again |
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wrote:
I notice heavens-above now has some orbit data for it, though I guess the biggest problem with this is that it's likely to manouver some more. I just spotted Shenzhou 6, and the H-A prediction was within ten seconds of its actual passage. --Bill Thompson |
#5
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"William R Thompson" wrote in message
hlink.net... wrote: I notice heavens-above now has some orbit data for it, though I guess the biggest problem with this is that it's likely to manouver some more. I just spotted Shenzhou 6, and the H-A prediction was within ten seconds of its actual passage. Those were my pre-flight estimated elements. Shenzhou orbits do not come within range of U.S. radars until quite a few hours after launch, so I prepare estimates based on the orbits past missions. Each Shenzhou mission has virtually the identical orbital inclination and dimensions, so it is not surprising to achieve the accuracy you observed. During their flight, Shenzhou spacecraft make periodic small orbital adjustments to esentially negate the effects of drag, so I set the decay terms of my elements to zero. This should result in accuracy well within one minute of time throughout the mission. Nevertheless, I expect that H-A will switch to the USSTRATCOM elsets, which began to appear several hours ago. Ted Molczan |
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wrote:
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 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. Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks in advance, Tom The Heavens above web page is a good source. If you wish to observe more stuff including the Space Station, I recommend Orbitron which is excellent - and free ! http://www.stoff.pl/ I've just returned inside after seeing Shenzou track in the south. It was quite faint, comparable to the Hubble in magnitude. I live at Adelaide, South Australia. Sid. |
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