Tracking Satellites

I’m going to take a stab at using Windows Live Writer.  The only thing that isn’t jumping out at me at the moment is the “page break”  function.  We’ll see how it goes.


*(see below)



There are a couple reasons for this.  We had the Blogger meltdown last week,  and there have been times when I’ve been away from an internet connection, and have had something to say,  and tried using Open Office or a simple text writing program.  There were issues. 
The thing is,  Live Writer saves any entry to this computer as well as sending it out to the web.  So Blogger can melt away.  It’s all good.
And yes,  I do regularly export and back up the blog.  I’m approaching 400 entries,  and even though most of it is drivel,  it would really suck if it all vanished some how.

Even though we don’t have regular TV here in Wienerland,  we do have access to any amount of news that we’re willing to seek out on the net.
Yesterday morning NASA launched the shuttle Endeavour.   This is the last flight for this particular vehicle,  as the Space Shuttle program is coming to an end.  It would be fortuitous if NASA had another program in the wings ready to go,  but I think there are other problems afoot at the moment in the good ole U.S. of A. so perhaps having a space program is something that will have to wait a bit.
Not my place to comment.
Anyway,  that’s neither here nor there.   What I happened to stumble upon was this rather neat website that someone has put up,  that allows you to find and track any satellite that’s presently in orbit.   I have to say,  I was a tad surprised to see just how many there are. 
Plus, some have been up there for a long,  long time.


Here's the link.


Now I have to warn you,  this site updates every second,  so if you have anything less than at least broadband,  and preferably high speed cable,  you won’t be happy.  I also had this naive idea that the orbit was somehow static,  but it turns out it’s constantly changing,  so depending on complete chance,  (time of day,  weather conditions) you may in fact be able to see the two vehicles whizz by.
I think I’ve missed my chance though,  since it looks like they passed over Europe on their last orbit, which was a couple hours ago, and they won’t be coming back this way for a day or so.  I’m sure there’s some precise way of knowing that,  but it’s so overcast right now I don’t think it’s going to matter.

Now if I could only find that page break function…



*I've had to do the "page break" thing from the edit function in the blog,  so if anyone has any clue,  let me know.


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