Satellite oddity/83 Peg

Bill J Gray Sep 8, 2002

That Soyuz TM34 problem most likely will go away if you switch the
animation mode from "RA/dec" to "proper motion" (well, to _anything_
except RA/dec.) The RA/dec animation mode is really a relic, and
I may simply eliminate it; it updates moving objects by erasing them from
their old place and redrawing them in the new place.

This is a somewhat error-prone method. It really causes trouble if
you've got one object sitting on top of another (such as ISS on top of
Soyuz TM34.) In the currently-posted software, the default is
"proper motion" animation. In this mode, the entire screen is refreshed
at each time. This eliminates weird artifacts, such as the one you
mention. (The same method is used for "horizon" and "moving object"
animation modes, which is why they also don't show these artifacts.)

As Kevin mentioned, Soyuz TM34 gets its own .TLEs, slightly different
from those for ISS. I've never really understood why this is so.

Pierre Laporte asked about the "missing" 83 Peg. The problem here
is that the star isn't listed in the Bright Star Catalog, or in any other
listing to which I have access. I'll do a bit of hunting on this. About
once a year or so, somebody reports a Flamsteed (or even Bayer
Greek-letter!) star that doesn't show up properly in Guide; I add
them as I learn about them.

-- Bill