Does geosatfinder work?

[MikeInAlaska]

I am trying to find locations for three dishes in my yard. I had been using "geosatfinder" to get the azimuth of the satellites But. I think the program just takes the longitude of the satellite and simly subtracts mag. declination from it to compute azimuth???

Here is a list of geosatfinder versus Orbitron

109W - GeoSatFinder AZ 90 - Orbitron AZ - 136
119W - GeoSatFinder AZ 99 - Orbitron AZ - 145
129W - GeoSatFinder AZ 109 - Orbitron AZ - 156

Am I right in assuming that GeoSatFinder is totally whacked on these?

 

[Mr Tony]

try ours here at thelist and see what numbers you get

Satellite Angle Calculator - SatelliteGuys.US

 

[MikeInAlaska]

You agree with Orbitron: 136.8° - 146.1° - 156.9°
OK I'm forgetting about GeoSatFinder! Thank you

 

[Mr Tony]

but you have to use Magnetic Azimuth when using a compass which is
114.2
123.5
134.3

 

[MikeInAlaska]

Right, gotcha. (GeoSatFinder is still crazy from here - off by 24 degrees in all cases INCLUDING the magnetic declination.)

So, this is how I confirmed my shots to the sky last night.

I use Orbitron to get the azimuth (non magnetic corrected) and I used "Stellarium" which is a free gorgeous planetarium program. Using Stellarium, (turn on the alt-az grid) I found the star "Ancha" passes within a fraction of a degree of each satellite at 11:58 AM (110W) , 12:40 AM (119W), and 1:25 AM (129W). Went out with binoculars and you can actually just look up and spot the clear paths through the yard and neighbors trees

 

[Mr Tony]

I tried it too (geosatfinder) and noticed that it was way off

 

[MikeInAlaska]

Thanks for the confirmation. I really appreciate your help in the threads I've posted recently.