Quantcast
Channel: Calculating the apparent magnitude of a satellite - Astronomy Stack Exchange
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 3

Answer by Nick Brown for Calculating the apparent magnitude of a satellite

$
0
0

This is for satellites with unknown size and orientation but known standard magnitude (Standard magnitude can be found on the satellite info page of heavens above, the number is called intrinsic magnitude)The proper formula is

            double distanceToSatellite = 485; //This is in KM            double phaseAngleDegrees = 113.1; //Angle from sun->satellite->observer            double pa = phaseAngleDegrees * 0.0174533; //Convert the phase angle to radians            double intrinsicMagnitude = -1.8; //-1.8 is std. mag for iss            double term_1 = intrinsicMagnitude;            double term_2 = 5.0 * Math.Log10(distanceToSatellite / 1000.0);            double arg = Math.Sin(pa) + (Math.PI - pa) * Math.Cos(pa);            double term_3 = -2.5 * Math.Log10(arg);            double apparentMagnitude = term_1 + term_2 + term_3;

This will give the apparent magnitude of the satellite.Note: I gave the formula in C#


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 3

Trending Articles



<script src="https://jsc.adskeeper.com/r/s/rssing.com.1596347.js" async> </script>