Does Sky Safari 6 Pro support tracking the ISS with my Celestron Evolution Mount?
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6 comments
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Conrad Sanders Any updates? I have also asked Celestron about my question.
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Keiron Smith Hi Conrad,
What did Celestron say? This is question they need to answer. It is not about the app, but the speed at which your Evolution mount can slew. Is it fast enough to track the ISS? I'm curious to know what they say.
Thanks!
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Conrad Sanders Here is what they said:
Thank you for contacting Celestron Technical Support.
I am sorry but no, none of our software enables you to track the ISS.
While a number of planetarium programs will generate positions (ephemerides) of satellites and can feed them to the mount. Satellites move so rapidly that a dynamic approach is needed so the scope can actually catch up and lock onto them.
This is the way the Satellite Tracker freeware works. It is provided by the Satellite Tracker Users Group on Yahoo and works with Celestron and other brands of GoTo mounts: https://www.heavenscape.com/
Another program that will help with tracking rapidly-moving sky targets with Celestron GoTo scopes is Optic Tracker. It can be used for satellites, aircraft, etc. It’s used with a joystick control to acquire a moving target. Once the imaging software “locks” on a target, it will keep the scope moving in the same direction automatically: http://www.optictracker.com/Optic_Tracker/Home.html
Johnny O, Celestron Technical Support -
Keiron Smith Thank you, Conrad! Great info!
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Conrad Sanders So did we really get an answer from Celestron?
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Keiron Smith You can follow up with them. The answer appears to be yes. BTW, the info Celestron gave you is posted here:
And, if you google you can read more:
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/499473-satellite-tracking-iss/
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/575533-iss-tracking-with-celestron/
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