How To Get Gpredict To Work
This program has numerous quirks, we all expect to read the Users Manual, but some things are not placed where you might expect to look for them.
How to update your list of satellites (and their orbits) - look under the Edit menu (even though you are not going to edit anything) and you can update your TLEs from the Network (the normal choice) or Local Files. If you look under Extending Your Satellite Catalog you will see more directions about how to update from Local Files.
The program uses “modules” which you should think of as a set of satellites and various ways to display information about them or use that information to drive a telescope mount. I use modules to display various satellites together so I can illustrate how their orbits are related and I also group satellites if I am planning to track them. For instance I have several modules of sun synchronous satellites, these show how their orbits are in the same planes. And for tracking, I have a number of interesting satellites that have mean motion and inclination that make them likely to be able to track.
When Gpredict has started, go to the File menu and select New Module. Give it a catchy name (with no spaces) and pick some satellites, the selection interface is likely from some older Unix but it looks remarkably like the old Font/DA Mover from System 6. Under Group you will see that it has the sets of satellites that CelesTrak has. Select a ground station as well.
Under “Properties” you can select how the information is displayed, one important thing for my needs to to get a good looking world map since it is the background for ground traces. The last option, nasa_topo_2048.jpg, is a good one.
To later change a module you use the “module pop up” menu (page 13 in the User’s Manual) which is oddly not titled at all. This menu just consists of a downward arrowhead in a small box, on the upper right side of the display. Modules let you use the program to display satellite's ground traces or to drive a mount to track satellites.
So if you are essentially editing a module and it’s preferences, you use an untitled menu instead of the Edit menu. So use this module pop up, the Configure option.
The Preferences under the Edit menu are global preferences. Under well designed Macintosh programs, Word is a good example, the Preferences are under the File menu. on, to edit the module that is displayed. The screenshot below shows the module pop up - right beside the X in a box that deletes that module (this is also not labeled at all). Try to not accidentally click on that box.
When you see the map, if you right click on the yellow dot which represents the satellite, you can cause the yellow circle that shows ground visibility to NOT be filled in (but you cannot eliminate that circle). And you can get the ground trace to be displayed.
as of: 4 Jan 2020
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