Comments on: Fun With Orbits, Or How to Slow Down by Speeding Up http://dunningrb.wordpress.com/2007/10/12/fun-with-orbits-or-how-to-slow-down-by-speeding-up/ Rodney Dunning's blog Fri, 16 May 2008 05:06:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: Lon http://dunningrb.wordpress.com/2007/10/12/fun-with-orbits-or-how-to-slow-down-by-speeding-up/#comment-13 Lon Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:36:01 +0000 http://dunningrb.wordpress.com/2007/10/12/fun-with-orbits-or-how-to-slow-down-by-speeding-up/#comment-13 In the early 80's, each time the Shuttle flew, I'd log on to a NASA bbs system and grab a set of orbital elements for it. I'd then program the relevant equations into my calculator and solve the orbit, plotting it with a grease pencil on an acetate sheet placed on top of a world map. There was a certain thrill that went along with then tuning into NASA TV and seeing my work matching up with the plot as seen on the main screen in mission control. Even better was when my plot of the shuttle's orbit intersected my local horizon circle during either morning or evening twilight. Seeing that, of course, caused an immediate coordinate conversion to altitude and azimuth and a scheduled trip outside with my binoculars. There's nothing like doing all those calculations, predicting its location at a given point in time, and proving correctness by eyeballing it directly. In the early 80’s, each time the Shuttle flew, I’d log on to a NASA bbs system and grab a set of orbital elements for it. I’d then program the relevant equations into my calculator and solve the orbit, plotting it with a grease pencil on an acetate sheet placed on top of a world map.

There was a certain thrill that went along with then tuning into NASA TV and seeing my work matching up with the plot as seen on the main screen in mission control.

Even better was when my plot of the shuttle’s orbit intersected my local horizon circle during either morning or evening twilight. Seeing that, of course, caused an immediate coordinate conversion to altitude and azimuth and a scheduled trip outside with my binoculars. There’s nothing like doing all those calculations, predicting its location at a given point in time, and proving correctness by eyeballing it directly.

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