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Help - Visible Passes for Specific Satellite
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This page gives a table of opportunities to see a particular satellite over the given
time period. Only passes which reach an
elevation of at least 10° are shown, because lower ones are difficult to observe.
First, the information about the search period (currently limited to 10 days), observers location and time zone are given as usual, and also
some summary orbit data.
Here is an example of the table listing the visible passes followed by
a description of each column;
| Date | Mag. | Starts | Max. Elevation | Ends |
|---|
| Time | El. | Az. | Time | El. | Az. | Time | El. | Az. |
|---|
| 02 Nov | 0.2 | 05:14:42 | 35 | S | 05:15:29 | 45 | SE | 05:18:23 | 10 | E |
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03 Nov |
2.8 |
04:11:49 |
12 |
E |
04:11:49 |
12 |
E |
04:12:13 |
10 |
E |
| 03 Nov |
-0.7 |
05:43:38 |
26 |
W |
05:45:09 |
77 |
N |
05:48:08 |
10 |
NE |
- Date
- The date when the pass occurs. Clicking on it dispalys the Pass Details page.
- Magnitude
- A magnitude estimate, if available, of the magnitude of the satellite
at the maximum elevation of the pass. If there is no estimate available, a question mark
will appear in this column. Please remember that this is only a rough estimate, and
there are usually unpredictable factors, concerned with the attitude of the satellite
which could lead to significant deviations from this value. Remember that lower values correspond to brighter
passes than high values.
- Start Time
- The start time, which is defined
either as the time when the satellite reaches an elevation angle of 10° or, if it is then still in shadow,
when it leaves the Earth's shadow.
- Start Elevation
- The elevation (angle above the local horizon) of the satellite at the start
of the pass.
- Start Azimuth
- The azimuth angle at the start of the pass.
This angle corresponds to the compass direction, or angle measured from north along
the horizon. Thus east corresponds to 90°, south is 180° and west 270°.
- Maximum Elevation
- These three columns give the time, elevation and azimuth at the highest
point of the pass. This corresponds to the highest elevation of the satellite
when sunlit, and therefore visible.
- Ends
- The last three columns give the time and location at the end of the pass.
This is defined similarly to the start, i.e. when the satellite drops below 10° or enters into shadow if
that happens first.
The navigation links at the top of the page include, as well as the usual Home
Page and Help links, options to display the general satellite information page,
the orbit details page, and the prvious and next search periods. The next search period follows on immediately after the current one,
and the previous period covers the time up to the beginning of this one.
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