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Question for veteran satellite observers..
Bill Thompson says...
Ed Cannon wrote: ... possible ... that official satellite elements may be withdrawn from public availability in May. See these articles: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Dec-2003/0248.html http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Dec-2003/0359.html After looking at these messages, I can't understand the rationale behind this bizarre decision. Basically, they can't face the fact that big expensive spysats are easy for motivated amateurs to track. (Also, for some crazy reason, they won't release elements for vehicles that launch classified satellites, even though there's no security risk there that I can imagine. But what do I know?) There may be an element of privatization of everything and wanting more revenue involved. It could even be industry people. I've read that commercial weather outfits really don't like it that the government provides weather data to the public for free. But I figure that really we pay for it in taxes already, like so many things. So maybe some aerospace industry people are just looking for another few dollars in revenue via this, and it fits in with the weird thinking of security maniacs. It's so ironic with security maniacs -- the only people who didn't know about Area 51 for a long time were US taxpayers. The Soviets had satellite photos of it long ago. I figure it's the same with satellites. If they withdraw the elements, it won't affect other nations that matter. Does anyone think that Russian, China, and even India can't track satellites with radar, not to mention visually? I figure that those all, along with others, track many many satellites now, so the withdrawal of USA-supplied elements won't affect them. And amateurs will continue to supply data on classified satellites. It's almost like when China was trying to control news getting in (back around Tienanmen Square times), but it was getting in anyway via fax machines, shortwave radios, etc. I'm hoping that at least a fair minority of orbital elements will remain available due to there being no point at all in them not being so. Didn't it occur to anyone that amateur observers might prove to be a security asset? If someone launches a satellite covered with radar-absorbent material, the government might need a large number of experienced satellite spotters to watch the object. Of course the USA has advanced visual tracking also, but it's conceivable that an amateur network could add significant data. Is there anyone in the government we can write to and ask to get this changed? (Senators? Congressmen? I'm not sure that any of mine can read, but I'd write them anyway if it would help.) --Bill Thompson Maybe senators and a congressman might be worth a letter, as well as the president. I wish I could drive up to Crawford some evening and show Mr. Bush how easy they are to see and explain to him how a smart adolescent with binoculars and a PC can track them. Ted Molczan learned to track them when he was a kid, before there were any PCs. (I just tried unsuccessfully to find his message to SeeSat-L where he wrote about that.) Ed Cannon - - Austin, Texas, USA |
#12
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Question for veteran satellite observers..
My satellite tracking started with PC-Track, by Thomas Johnson (Sp) before
the advent of Internet and this program had a valuable display which showed satellites in real time overhead. The centre of the display was where I was located. Unfortunately, since the program was for early DOS, it became outdated. My current satellite observations are basically ad hoc. I do it when the desire overtakes me. I use two satellite tracking programs which are totally free. Satscape and Orbitron, the latter having a very valuable overhead display, referred to as a Radar Screen - similar to the one as mentioned in PC track. I am not in the least interested in those small-size satellite tracking programs which are either DOS based or require the manual insertion of TLE's or other data. In addition, I have found that most of the more commercial programs are not very good for my requirements. IMHO, The irony being that Satscape and Orbitron beats the pants off most of them. I should mention that the two programs I have mentioned have prediction capabilities which can be saved as text files. It surprises me somewhat that a few satellite tracking guru's websites feature links to archaic/unwieldy satellite tracking applications such as Traksat and STSplus to the detriment of Satscape and Orbitron. Such programs were good in their day. With the two programs I have mentioned, updating elements is a breeze and is done whilst connected to the net. Computer time can also be synchronised, imperative for viewing satellites. "Allison Kirkpatrick" wrote in message om... How do you go about planning for a "session" of satellite observing? I understand how to come up with pass predictions for any satellite using software, online services like Heavens Above, etc., but I do not know how to "choose" satellites without it being laborious. For example, I just spent an hour or so typing in "Lacrosse 2", "Lacrosse 3", etc. at the Heavens Above web site to see what interesting satellites might be visible the next night or two from my location, but I found very few passes. This seems like a very inefficient way to go about planning, so what do you guys do? Do you pick out the interesting satellites, calculate when they will make favorable passes many days in advance, and then mark those on a calendar of some sort? Is there some software that you can use to do this? Thanks very much for your help. |
#13
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Question for veteran satellite observers..
My satellite tracking started with PC-Track, by Thomas Johnson (Sp) before
the advent of Internet and this program had a valuable display which showed satellites in real time overhead. The centre of the display was where I was located. Unfortunately, since the program was for early DOS, it became outdated. My current satellite observations are basically ad hoc. I do it when the desire overtakes me. I use two satellite tracking programs which are totally free. Satscape and Orbitron, the latter having a very valuable overhead display, referred to as a Radar Screen - similar to the one as mentioned in PC track. I am not in the least interested in those small-size satellite tracking programs which are either DOS based or require the manual insertion of TLE's or other data. In addition, I have found that most of the more commercial programs are not very good for my requirements. IMHO, The irony being that Satscape and Orbitron beats the pants off most of them. I should mention that the two programs I have mentioned have prediction capabilities which can be saved as text files. It surprises me somewhat that a few satellite tracking guru's websites feature links to archaic/unwieldy satellite tracking applications such as Traksat and STSplus to the detriment of Satscape and Orbitron. Such programs were good in their day. With the two programs I have mentioned, updating elements is a breeze and is done whilst connected to the net. Computer time can also be synchronised, imperative for viewing satellites. "Allison Kirkpatrick" wrote in message om... How do you go about planning for a "session" of satellite observing? I understand how to come up with pass predictions for any satellite using software, online services like Heavens Above, etc., but I do not know how to "choose" satellites without it being laborious. For example, I just spent an hour or so typing in "Lacrosse 2", "Lacrosse 3", etc. at the Heavens Above web site to see what interesting satellites might be visible the next night or two from my location, but I found very few passes. This seems like a very inefficient way to go about planning, so what do you guys do? Do you pick out the interesting satellites, calculate when they will make favorable passes many days in advance, and then mark those on a calendar of some sort? Is there some software that you can use to do this? Thanks very much for your help. |
#14
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Question for veteran satellite observers..
Ted Molczan wrote:
(with lots of fascinating information) I am fairly certain that the only country to have launched a stealth satellite was the U.S.A. So far. Imagine that the North Koreans take a small nuclear device, wrap it in radar-absorbent material and put it in orbit, the purpose being to detonate it several hundred miles above Washington, DC (no crater, no hibakusha, no fallout, no mushroom cloud . . . but the EMP destroys most of the electronics along the eastern seaboard). In that scenario, you might want a corps of experienced visual observers to help track the satellite, in case it turns out that the RAM works well enough to keep radar from spotting the staellite. Making the elsats public has an obvious deterrent effect. It proves that the Defense Department knows which objects are in orbit. Even Kim il-Dork or Khadaffi Duck might think twice about doing something clever with a satellite if they knew its presence couldn't be kept secret. Thanks for the history of the Misty satellite. --Bill Thompson |
#15
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Question for veteran satellite observers..
Ted Molczan wrote:
(with lots of fascinating information) I am fairly certain that the only country to have launched a stealth satellite was the U.S.A. So far. Imagine that the North Koreans take a small nuclear device, wrap it in radar-absorbent material and put it in orbit, the purpose being to detonate it several hundred miles above Washington, DC (no crater, no hibakusha, no fallout, no mushroom cloud . . . but the EMP destroys most of the electronics along the eastern seaboard). In that scenario, you might want a corps of experienced visual observers to help track the satellite, in case it turns out that the RAM works well enough to keep radar from spotting the staellite. Making the elsats public has an obvious deterrent effect. It proves that the Defense Department knows which objects are in orbit. Even Kim il-Dork or Khadaffi Duck might think twice about doing something clever with a satellite if they knew its presence couldn't be kept secret. Thanks for the history of the Misty satellite. --Bill Thompson |
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