Imaging Geosynchronous Satellites with ACP (rev. Jan 2018)

[Bob Denny]

This AppNote describes how to use ACP Expert's UserActions hooks, in combination with external Python code, to allow imaging geosynchronous satellites (geosats) without human intervention or stringent timing. Orbital elements (TLE) are automatically fetched from Space-Track as needed and cached locally. The application adds two new target types to ACP live observing plans: (1) stationary image(s) of a geosat field, (2) sidereally tracked image(s) of a geosat field (for subsequent photometry). These target types may be freely intermixed with conventional deep sky and solar system (orbital) targets in a single ACP live observing plan. All ACP timing, filter, binning, and repetition directives are supported for these two new target types. Also covered is useful info on providing and developing Python scripts on Windows including visual editing and debugging with Visual Studio 2015.

The full (PDF) of the Application Note (which contains installation and usage instructions) along with zipfiles containing the UserAction and Python script are attached. Please note that this will require tweaking for your specific system.



Now try it with ACP! Expect some issues. I will help as needed (up to a point ha ha).