NLSA
home
Satellites are potentially visible by eye from Earth when the all of the
following conditions are met:
- The observer's sky is dark
- The satellite is above the observer's horizon
- The satellite is illuminated by the Sun, i.e. not in the Earth's shadow
Using Nova, you can determine when a satellite might be visible. Nova can display this information in real time or in a tabulated listing. Nova can also drive a Meade LX200 telescope.
Real Time: The visual status of each satellite is displayed adjacent to the "Visual" title:
- "Visual" = potentially visible
- "Sun" = Observer's sky is too bright
- "Eclipse" = the satellite is in the Earth's shadow and cannot be seen.
If the Visual line is not displayed, go to the Main Menu, select Views/Configure current view. This will display the Individual View Configuration screen. There, click on the Format Text button. You will see where to enable the Visible line.
Listing: You can create a listing of future passes by using Nova's Listing
utility. From the Main Menu, select Utilities/Listing. On the One
Observer page of the Listing utility, select Setup. You will see a check
box to select only visual passes:
If
this check box is selected, then the Listing will show passes that meet the
criteria for visual observation.