This document describes planned changes to the sattools repository.
The sattools began as a set of tools to help with tracking satellites using video and photographic cameras. The choice of C was one of familiarity with the code. Where possible, available libraries such as wcslib, gsl, qfits and pgplot were used. Some of these libraries are hard to build, raising the threshold for using sattools.
With python becoming more and more popular, it makes sense to port some of the sattools functionality over to python, and use powerful libraries such as numpy, scipy, astropy, matplotlib and opencv for the core calculations of these tools. Porting the tools to another language has the added bonus that it is easier to solve mistakes made in designing the C code and improve functionality.
The applications of the sattools repository can be divided into three categories;
- general purpose tools
- tools for video observing
- tools for photographic observing
Tools for radio observing have already been developed in their own repository strf: https://github.com/cbassa/strf. Porting tools for video observing is currently underway in the stvid repository: https://github.com/cbassa/stvid. The tools for photographic observing will live under a future repository, likely to be called stphot. An experimental project to use all-sky cameras for satellite observing is being developed in the asm repository: https://github.com/cbassa/asm (this could be renamed to stasm or stas; better suggestions are welcome).
| Tools | sattools |
stvid |
stphot |
Purpose | Future |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
addwcs |
x | x | Add/fits a WCS to FITS file | Changed to a python function |
|
allnight |
x | Compute sunrise/sunset times | Stand alone tool | ||
angular |
x | Compute angular distances | Stand alone tool | ||
calibrate |
x | x | Manually calibrate WCS | Stand alone tool | |
confirm |
Confirm satellite identifications | Deprecated, replaced with stvid functionality |
|||
cvs2tle |
Deprecated | ||||
dec2sex |
x | Convert decimal to sexagesimal | Stand alone tool | ||
deproject |
Deprecated | ||||
detect |
Detect satellite tracks | Deprecated, replaced with stvid functionality |
|||
fakeiod |
x | Generate a fake IOD observation | Stand alone tool | ||
faketle |
x | Generate a fake TLE | Stand alone tool | ||
fitsheader |
x | Read a FITS header | Stand alone tool | ||
imgstat |
Deprecated, replaced with stvid functionality |
||||
jpg2fits |
x | Convert a JPG image to FITS | Stand alone tool | ||
launchtle |
x | Adjust a TLE to a new launch time | Stand alone tool | ||
measure |
x | Measure satellite positions in photographic observations | Stand alone tool | ||
mvtle |
Move a TLE | Deprecated | |||
normal |
Compute the normal of an orbit | Deprecated | |||
pass |
x | Compute satellite passes | Stand alone tool | ||
pgm2fits |
Convert individual video frames to FITS | Deprecated, replaced with stvid functionality |
|||
plotfits |
Manually calibrate WCS | Deprecated, replaced with stvid functionality |
|||
posmatch |
Match satellite positions | Deprecated | |||
posvel |
Compute satellite position and velocity | Deprecated | |||
propagate |
x | Propagate a TLE to a new epoch | Stand alone tool | ||
pstrack |
Perform a brute force plane scan | Deprecated | |||
rde2iod |
x | Convert positions from RDE to IOD format | Stand alone tool | ||
reduce |
x | Measure satellite positions in photographic observations | Stand alone tool | ||
residuals |
x | Compute residuals between IOD observations and TLEs | Stand alone tool | ||
runsched |
x | x | Control INDI controlled telescope mounts | To be replaced with stvid/stphot functionality |
|
rv2tle |
x | Convert a position and velocity into a TLE | Stand alone tool | ||
satfit |
x | Fit a TLE to IOD observations | Stand alone tool | ||
satid |
x | x | Compute satellite predictions for images | Deprecated, replaced with stvid functionality |
|
satmap |
x | Vizualize satellite tracks on a map of Earth | Stand alone tool | ||
satorbit |
x | Vizualize satellite orbits around a spherical Earth | Stand alone tool | ||
sex2dec |
x | Convert sexagesimal to decimal | Stand alone tool | ||
skymap |
x | Vizualize satellite tracks on the sky, plan observations | Stand alone tool | ||
slewto |
x | x | Control INDI controlled telescope mounts | To be replaced with stvid/stphot functionality |
|
stviewer |
View/plot video FITS files | Deprecated | |||
tle2ole |
Print TLE parameters on a single line | Deprecated | |||
tle2rv |
x | Compute satellite position and velocity | Deprecated | ||
tleinfo |
x | Print useful TLE info | Stand alone tool | ||
tleupdate |
x | x | x | Update TLE catalogs | To be replaced by stvid\s update_tle.py |
uk2iod |
x | Convert positions from UK to IOD format | Stand alone tool | ||
waitfor |
Wait for nearest integer second | Deprecated | |||
wcsfit |
Fit a WCS | Deprecated, replaced with stvid functionality |
|||
xyz2tle |
Deprecated |
| Tool | Who | Status |
|---|---|---|
skymap |
cbassa | Ongoing |
launchtle |
kerel | Ongoing |