Ah, yes... the Oscarlocator. Why I remember back in the day when... I'll spare you all, except to say that if I recall correctly, once the correct overlay was selected, we would take nothing more than two pieces of data, the time of an ascending equator crossing (EQX abbreviation comes to mind), and the longitude of that crossing, then just extrapolate it out for other times. Seems like the orbit calendars that were printed in the magazines listed a half dozen or so orbits (a month?). From that minimal info you could "run" your predictions out fairly accurately for a good while. Seems like AO-10, being HEO, had multiple overlays, no? or at least one very squiggly looking one. Been a while.
There were rumors that guys were beginning to use computers to predict passes, and to provide realtime updates. But who would spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, have to input all of those Keplerian elements, when the Oscarlocator will give you the same info? Unthinkable. A passing fancy. :-) Rich, N8UX. _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
