PREDICTIONS ON SATELLITE ORBITS

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31659, 20 April 1968, Page 7

PREDICTIONS ON SATELLITE ORBITS

The Canterbury Astronomical Society has received its first set of predictions for satellites from the Radio and Space Research Station at Slough, England, after two months of supplying the station with satellite observations. The society's new task is to watch for satellites and to mark their positions in relation to altitude, time, and azimuth bearing. Working with Christ’s College students, the society has done similar practical work on what is known as the Moonwatch programme. Led by the New Zealand representative of the Smithsonian Institution (Mr N. E. Heath), the society acts as a satellite-tracking station for the institution’s astrophysical observatory. The predictions are estimated times and positions of orbiting satellites on their

normal path round the earth Observers round the earth look for the satellites and note when and where they see them. Observations made round the world are sent to Slough, where more accurate predictions of future satellites' paths are computed. The data sent to Slough is also used for working out air-drag calculations of satellites and for measuring the density of the earth’s outer atmosphere.