Total Solar Eclipse 2008 - Russia

Hi Seanie,

It is always frustrating when such an opportunity is lost due to the weather. I can accept a change in orbit due to an orbit boost but when the weather kills an opportunity, it is a different situation! :evil:

As for how I keep track, I use a variety of methods. One is CalSky which allows me to generate predictions of up to a week in advance and which helps raise a warning flag when something looks interesting.

I also have access to a NASA closed site for getting very precise and up-to-the-minute elements and which I use to study possible transits.

Finally, there is Rob Matson's Sky Map program which also is very good at identifying lunar and solar transits.

I consider myself fairly updated when it comes to successful transit captures and I do not recall ever seeing an HST transit against the moon. Fingers crossed my next opportunity will not be too far away. With a scheduled Shuttle mission to fix the Hubble (STS-125 in Oct/2008), this is something that will become timely and it would be really neat having such a catch.

Interesting, thanks Anto. Tell me, which of the sources you quoted is free and would be the most accurate? Can any Joe Soap access the closed NASA site?

Seanie.

Interesting, thanks Anto. Tell me, which of the sources you quoted is free and would be the most accurate?

Seanie,

They are all free (this is the best part). For example:

(1) for CalSky, see www.calsky.com/cs.cgi/Satellites/16 ? ... the software automatically extracts your location via your IP address and it is a good idea to check and confirm the proper coordinates for you are being used (if not, change them) since the footprint is usually just around 5 km for any (ISS) pass and it is critical that you have accurate personal coordinartes

(2) for Rob Matson's program, see web.archive.org/web/20051031212446/users.../skymap66/index.html ... this program is so good (!) that it has been taken offline due to US government pressure after 9/11

Can any Joe Soap access the closed NASA site?

Following 9/11, access to precise and timely TLE's was restricted significantly. However, it does not hurt to apply at www.space-track.org/perl/login.pl ... I am very fortunate to have an account and where I can get TLE's for overhead ISS passes which are no more than three to four hours old under a worst case scenario.

Nice one, thanks Anthony.

Seanie,

The program by Rob Matson uses ANSI characters and it seems that recent versions of Windows (ex. XP) have made a mess with this ability and which impacts the online text within Matson's program.

Please pay attention to the reference on the page I cited to the ANSI zip and which contains a utility which is temporarily loaded into HIRAM before loading the SkyMap program and which is then unloaded when one exits the program.

It is not critical that you use this fix but it will be easier on your eyes if you do implement it (regular text with ANSI codes do no mix well otherwise).

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