PyEphem Body location in degrees

Question

I am trying to figure out how to use pyephem to get the degrees (alt and az I think) of a body or satellite. I'm going to pass that information to a motor control, so I really would like the information in 360 degree from north if possible. Or more information on how things like this are calculated would be handy as well.

Any help would be wonderful. Thanks

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 26 '15 at 04:58

0

You should be able to get floating point numbers in degrees with:

sat.alt / ephem.degree
sat.az / ephem.degree

Because you are doing math with the two values, they are made available to these expressions in radians, and the value ephem.degree is one degree of arc but expressed in radians — so dividing by that value turns your radian measure into degrees.

answered Dec 26 '15 at 04:58

Brandon Rhodes

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Would using numpy be another way to do that? `numpy.rad2deg(body.alt))` – brian lee Dec 27 '15 at 03:47
That might work — try both ways and see if they give the same number. – Brandon Rhodes Dec 29 '15 at 16:42

PyEphem Body location in degrees

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