Tracking the ISS and other satellites

This forum is for discussing all things astronomical that aren't directly related to the activities of the MAS.
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merle
Posts: 3962
Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2005 10:04 am
Location: Farmington / Lakeville

Tracking the ISS and other satellites

Post by merle »

Here's the link I had on the homepage for the tracking site for the ISS and other satellites

Click Here for ISS (satellite) Orbital Tracking


If you have a tracking site you like, let us know and post to this forum
Clear skies,
Merle Hiltner
MAS Eagle Lake Observatory
Onan Observatory • Sylvia A. Casby Observatory • HotSpot Classroom
merle.hiltner@gmail.com
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David R. Brandt
Posts: 102
Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2007 8:24 pm
Location: Minnetonka

Re: Tracking the ISS and other satellites

Post by David R. Brandt »

Stellarium has a satellite plug-in that I use.
The Universe is a Dangerous place. Let's not leave all of our eggs on one planet.
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matt_2018
Posts: 59
Joined: Tue May 15, 2018 11:56 am
Real Name: Matt Dunham

Re: Tracking the ISS and other satellites

Post by matt_2018 »

The Meade Autostar II (and presumably other telescope controllers) has a nifty feature: The ability to point at and follow a satellite in the sky. I've done it once with my LX200, and I hope to try it with the Meade at Onan. I was visually able to actually see the shape and colors of the ISS as it was moving quickly in the sky.
This relates to this thread because I needed to enter recent orbital elements into the Autostar II for this to work, then I just needed to select "ISS" and press "GOTO". I was able to obtain the orbital elements from the Heavens Above / ISS / Orbit page.

https://www.heavens-above.com/orbit.asp ... 000&tz=CST

The orbit data is extracted from the following two-line orbital elements:

1 25544U 98067A 19206.95507013 .00016717 00000-0 10270-3 0 9027
2 25544 51.6390 168.9328 0006639 180.7328 179.3814 15.51017206 21268

Epoch (UTC): 25 July 2019 22:55:18
Eccentricity: 0.0006639
inclination: 51.6390°
perigee height: 409 km
apogee height: 418 km
right ascension of ascending node: 168.9328°
argument of perigee: 180.7328°
revolutions per day: 15.51017206
mean anomaly at epoch: 179.3814°
orbit number at epoch: 2126

All but two of the orbital elements had the same name on Heavens Above and in the Autostar II. For the remaining two, the naming was confusing, but with a little deduction, I was able to figure out which number fit the required orbital element. Next time I do this on the Autostar II, I'll write it all down and add it to this thread.

Matt
Matt Dunham
MAS Treasurer & member since 2018

Meade LX200RC 12-inch (my portable observatory)
Celestron SC-8" w/fork wedge (my travel scope)
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