[M]: A Brief review of C-Sat Software
| Subject: | [M]: A Brief review of C-Sat Software |
| From: | Shay Walters |
| Date: | Fri Feb 26 09:51:41 1999 |
I heard about C-Sat through this newsgroup but havent seen anyone
commenting much about it, so I thought Id post a brief review of it. Be
forwarned that Ive only had one evenings experience with it.
I received the C-Sat package Tuesday. I took it out Tuesday night and
after about an hour & a half, I had it tracking satellites. I followed 3 or
4 before I decided it was getting too cold to stay outside. I didnt find
any that were big enough to resolve as anything other than moving dots. The
setup is exacting, but nothing very difficult. I did a 2-star alignment on
the LX200 with a high-power eyepiece (I need to get an illuminated
reticule), set the precise time on my computer from WWV, and installed a
current TLE file for the satellite orbits.
The first several tries were duds until I noticed that C-Sat was showing
UTC wrong - turns out that C-Sats configuration question about daylight
savings time means "is it in effect right now" rather than "is it used in
your area". As soon as I fixed that, UTC was right, and the next satellite
I tried showed up.
I had my lowest-power eyepiece (55mm on a 3000mm scope) and the scope
movement was just about in "field-of-view" jumps, so with any higher power,
you would lose sight of the satellite briefly. The scope moves every 3-4
seconds. One annoyance is that the LX200 keypad beeps everytime the scope
moves. C-sat manual says to unplug the keypad to stop this, but I am
reluctant to do that with power applied. I will probably modify the LX200
keypad with a silence switch. (This is something inherent in the LX200,
C-sat cant control the beeping.)
One thing I found less-than-ideal was that you bring up one screen to
show you which satellites are "up", and you have to remember the satellite
name or number, and switch back to the main screen and type that name in.
Because the satellites move by quickly, it would be nice if there were some
quicker way to do this - maybe highlighting the satellite with the cursor
keys and hitting enter, for example.
The "whats up" screen does have good information - the approximate
direction (N NE E SE, etc.) whether the satellite is rising or falling, and
the current elevation above the horizon. Some of the larger satellites have
an indicator of their size.
Anyway, to sum up, C-Sat "works as advertised". As I mentioned, the
setup must be done carefully, but if it is done well, the satellites show up
just as they should.
commenting much about it, so I thought Id post a brief review of it. Be
forwarned that Ive only had one evenings experience with it.
I received the C-Sat package Tuesday. I took it out Tuesday night and
after about an hour & a half, I had it tracking satellites. I followed 3 or
4 before I decided it was getting too cold to stay outside. I didnt find
any that were big enough to resolve as anything other than moving dots. The
setup is exacting, but nothing very difficult. I did a 2-star alignment on
the LX200 with a high-power eyepiece (I need to get an illuminated
reticule), set the precise time on my computer from WWV, and installed a
current TLE file for the satellite orbits.
The first several tries were duds until I noticed that C-Sat was showing
UTC wrong - turns out that C-Sats configuration question about daylight
savings time means "is it in effect right now" rather than "is it used in
your area". As soon as I fixed that, UTC was right, and the next satellite
I tried showed up.
I had my lowest-power eyepiece (55mm on a 3000mm scope) and the scope
movement was just about in "field-of-view" jumps, so with any higher power,
you would lose sight of the satellite briefly. The scope moves every 3-4
seconds. One annoyance is that the LX200 keypad beeps everytime the scope
moves. C-sat manual says to unplug the keypad to stop this, but I am
reluctant to do that with power applied. I will probably modify the LX200
keypad with a silence switch. (This is something inherent in the LX200,
C-sat cant control the beeping.)
One thing I found less-than-ideal was that you bring up one screen to
show you which satellites are "up", and you have to remember the satellite
name or number, and switch back to the main screen and type that name in.
Because the satellites move by quickly, it would be nice if there were some
quicker way to do this - maybe highlighting the satellite with the cursor
keys and hitting enter, for example.
The "whats up" screen does have good information - the approximate
direction (N NE E SE, etc.) whether the satellite is rising or falling, and
the current elevation above the horizon. Some of the larger satellites have
an indicator of their size.
Anyway, to sum up, C-Sat "works as advertised". As I mentioned, the
setup must be done carefully, but if it is done well, the satellites show up
just as they should.
