The satellite arc

[Analoguesat]

We sometimes talk about the broadcast satellites being on an arc. This probably doesnt mean much to the average beginner, so maybe this diagram will help.

In the much of the UK, the satellite near enough due south of your location is the Thor twins (2 &3) at 1W. These satellites will be the ones highest in the sky. Curving gently down toward both horizons in an inverted arc are a multitude of other satellites as shown on the diagram.

The diagram also illustrates why things like the PAS birds at 68E are much more difficult to get in the uk - they are close to the horizon. In the UK, 1W will be somewhere between 20 and 30 degrees above the horizon. 68E will be around 5 degrees.....


This lo-res scan is from What Satellite magazine and used with their permission. The hi quality print version is available every month at the top of the "Channel Check" section of What Satellite & Digital TV magazine

[BGonaSTICK]

Nice post, and a worthy sticky methinks

[Analoguesat]

Hmm - the original WhatSat pic was out of date - Astra 1A went to graveyard orbit 18 months previous

Oh - a word about graveyard orbits whilst Im at it.

When a satellite reaches the end of its life its moved off the geostationary arc. The last dregs of fuel are used to move it a few hundred km away from the other satellites and its then abandoned and left to drift. At this point its said to be in graveyard or junk orbit.

The engineers want to get dead satellites off the main geostationary arc because if they were left in position then gravitational effects would eventually cause them to drift off station. It would be an extremely bad idea to leave dead satellites to drift around uncontrolled - they could damage operational craft......

[chavslav]

hi, helpful diagram,

does anyone know how i can get eurobird 1 28.5 east i'm looking for nasn europe .

how do i program my technomate 1500ci to add this to my sat list, i've misplaced my 1500ci manual and was wondering if anyone can help.

cheers......

[Analoguesat]

NASN Europe ceased yesterday! :roflmao:

EB1 is co-located with the Astra 2's at 28E.

Chavslav - can you take any further questions about programming your receiver onto a seperate thread ? Otherwise this thread will drift off topic.

[chavslav]

ok, thanks for reply.