gate

If you're familiar with my fate project, then you'll know that this basically extends on the idea of helping you track non-natural satellites (e.g. the ISS).

This is essentially a more fully-featured astronomy tool for someone like me, who is more interested in the software than the actual astronomy (although the astronomy is pretty cool as well).

gate supports computing the location of stars, objects cataloged by NAIF with a NAIF ID, satellites with TLE data and even objects that can be added into the program's database using RA/Dec.

Building

Requires cmake installed.

git clone https://github.com/caojohnny/gate.git
mkdir gate/build && cd gate/build
cmake ..
make install -j4

Building the docs requires the doxygen and graphviz packages installed. Docs can be turned on by using the -DBUILD_DOC=ON when doing cmake ... They are output to build/doc.

An installation directory can be specified by using -DCMAKE_BUILD_PREFIX=/path/to/dir when doing cmake ...

Usage

gate is a library first and foremost. However, its capabilities are demonstrated with the gatecli executable. Run gatecli and type in HELP to print detailed help messages.

Demo

Loading command file 'setup'...
OBSERVER_LATITUDE = 47.000000
OBSERVER_LONGITUDE = -122.000000
Loaded kernel for file './kernels/hipparcos.bin'
Loaded kernel for file './kernels/naif0011.tls'
Loaded kernel for file './kernels/pck00010.tpc'
Loaded kernel for file './kernels/earth_fixed.tf'
Loaded kernel for file './kernels/earth_000101_200314_191222.bpc'
Loaded kernel for file './kernels/de435.bsp'
STAR_TABLE = HIPPARCOS

gate> HELP
You can Ctrl+C any time to halt continuous output

--- HELP ---
EXIT - Quits the command line
HELP - prints this message
LOAD <CMD | KERNEL | CSN> <filename> - loads a set of commands or a kernel or CSN from file
SET <option> <value> - sets the value of a particular option
GET <option> - prints the value of a particular option
SHOW <TABLES | FRAMES | CSN | BODIES | CALC> - prints the available table, frame, named star, body, or custom calc object names
STAR INFO <catalog number> - prints information for a star with the given catalog number
STAR AZEL <catalog number> <CONT | count> <ISO time | NOW> - prints the observation position for the star with the given catalog number
BODY INFO <naif id> - prints information for a body with the given NAIF ID
BODY AZEL <naif id> <CONT | count> <ISO time | NOW> - prints the observation position for the satellite with the given NAIF ID
SAT ADD <id> - adds a satellite with the given ID to the internal database (non persistent)
SAT REM <id> - removes the satellite with the given ID from the internal database
SAT INFO <id> - prints information for a satellite added with the given ID
SAT AZEL <id> <CONT | count> <ISO time | NOW> - prints the observation position for the satellite added with the given ID
CALC ADD <id> <RANGE> <RA deg> <DEC deg> [<RA_PM deg/yr> <DEC_PM deg/yr>] - adds a body with the given ID to the internal database (non persistent)
CALC REM <id> - removes a body with the given ID from the internal database
CALC INFO <id> - prints information for a custom calculated body with the given ID
CALC AZEL <id> <CONT | count> <ISO time | NOW> - prints the observation for position the calculated body added with the given ID

--- OPTIONS ---
OBSERVER_BODY
OBSERVER_LATITUDE
OBSERVER_LONGITUDE
STAR_TABLE

Credits

Built with CLion

Uses SPICE Toolkit