This program uses the sgp4 algorithm provided by NORAD to produce position
information on a satellite. Seesat5 can produce tracking information for one
satellite over a period of several days, or for a collection of satellites
over that period. By providing filter conditions seesat5 prints out only
those satellites you might have a chance to see rather than all the
satellites that pass above the horizon.
Seesat5 is typically run by placing control commands into an init file
called SEESAT5.INI. See seesat5 (7) for the description of these commands.
If there is no init file Seesat5 will present the operator with a '>' prompt
where commands can be entered. From the prompt seesat5 will begin analysis
when sufficient parameters have been entered to begin the run.
Seesat5 uses selection conditions to filter the data so that only high and
bright satellites are printed. Note that the selection conditions are used to
select whether or not the current passes data will be printed. If it is
printed, then the complete pass data is printed. ie. all data from when the
satellite comes over the horizon until it goes below.
For lines that satisfied ALL the selection conditions, a "+" sign is printed
as the first character.
Options
report
This option will disable printing of report records in the output of the
run. These include all command lines found in SEESAT5.INI or entered from
the command line or the prompt.
go
Followed by a label, this option causes branching within the SEESAT5.INI
to begin execution at the line following label. Branching occurs when the
cmdline command is executed in the SEESAT5.INI file.
command
Most of the commands that can be found in SEESAT5.INI can be entered on the
command line. If you desire the SEESAT5.INI file to execute after the
command line be sure to make the last command RET.
Seesat5 is not always able to check data integrity. Since computation and
output is driven by the data in the two line element, subtle errors in a tle
can cause floating point exceptions. In addition there are several commands
that do not work well together, like SHOWTLE and RUNTIME. Please report any
problems with seesat5 to Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net>.