Pyephem: How to compute transits?

Question

I know there's some kind of transit function, but I have no clue how to interface with it. Could someone talk me through it? Specifically I want to find out when the ISS will pass in front of the moon (want to see if my telescope can make out the shape of the station). How do I do this transit calculation?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 05 '16 at 15:14

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You can compute, the angular distance between the ISS and the center of the moon as a function of time.

You then only need to find the times when the value of this function is lower than the angular radius of the moon. If you want to find "long" transits, you can use a lower value, say one half of the radius (15 arc minutes).

In PyEphem, the newton function will find the time at which a function is zero.

answered Dec 05 '16 at 15:14

Tos

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Ah, that's very clever. Thank you! I'll look into this. – J Murphy Dec 06 '16 at 16:30

Pyephem: How to compute transits?

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