Contents - Index


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Ephemeris...

This produces the same pass-list box that can be accessed from the File, Print pass list... menu.

GPS Prediction...

Shows how many GPS satellites are above a selected elevation versus time of day.  Allows you to choose a time when more satellites are visible allowing greater accuracy.  From version 3.8.4 you can use predict either GPS satellites, or satellites of your choice, extending the function's utility.

Moonrise and Moonset...

Provides a year's prediction of moonrise and moonset.

Mutual visibility...

Displays a form where passes that are visible both from your Home location and a remote ground station may be predicted.  This allows you, for example, to predict what ISS passes can be seen both from your home and a Russian ground station, so you know when to listen for the downlink!

Optically visible passes...

Allows you to predict passes which are visible from your home location, where the satellite is in sunlight and it is twilight or nighttime in your location.  These passes are the ones that you may be able to see with the naked eye.

Radar plot...

Allows you to plot the azimuth and elevation for one or more satellites from your location.  More details.

Satellite orbit (Kepler) data...

This provides a basic check on which satellite data is being used, and will be of use should you have multiple copies of satellite data and wish to check that the most recent data is being used.  WXtrack will normally choose the data with the most recent epoch.  Clicking on the column headers will allow you to sort the list as you wish; to display older keplers first, for example.

On the form displayed you can set how old the satellite data must be before WXtrack considers it is stale data, and complains when you start the program.  You can also make WXtrack completely ignore data over a certain age, specified in months.  This data will be removed from the list of available satellites.  The defaults are:  polar data stale after: 30 days, geostationary data stale after: 65 days, skip Kepler data more than 12 months old.

To minimise the clutter on the display, only those satellites in your Active list will have their details initially displayed.  Check the Show all Kepler data check box to see all the satellites.

In the registered version of the program, you can save or print the displayed data.

Solar noon...

This allows you to see when the sun will be due south (or due north) at your location.  This is a new and rather experimental function added in V3.8.4.

Solar Outage...

In the registered version of the program, you can show when a geostationary satellite will be co-linear with the sun, and receiver outages can be expected.  Arne van Belle has kindly supplied this information.

Sunrise and Sunset...

Provides a year's prediction of sunrise and sunset.

TBUS bulletin decode...

This allows you to decode parts of the TBUS bulletins which are available for the NOAA series of satellites.  The contain some orbit and other information.