I think that this topic might emerge from time to time, but with the available filters I was unable to spot a discussion around it.
¿Is there a way to schedule multiple observations other than one by one?
Say, I would like to check on AMSAT-OSCAR 7, which is highly visible but erratically heard; I would like (say) to commit my station to hear it and report when alive, or perhaps check on a supposely dead bird, or check a given sat for a block of time. Combinations are certainly very high.
The question is, ¿is there a way to schedule observations other than one to ony by hand?
Obviously the results of that I assume needs to be checked and the quality of each verified.
You can use the observation/new page. You can either follow this link or go to Observations -> New Observation (at the top right).
In the link you can choose a satellite, its transmitter and the stations you want to watch for it. Also you can set the period by changing start and end time. Maximum end time is 48h in the future.
Then you hit Calculate to find the available time slots of the stations, then you choose the ones you want to schedule and you hit Schedule.
Recently there were changes in observations scheduling, I have in my plans to document the whole process of scheduling with all the options and the parameters.
Thank you, I just tested the facility and it is very handy. Perhaps a greater window will be useful, most satellites would keep a stable pass window for, say, a week. And that syncs better with the time to devote to schedulling (weekends).
As TLEs are updated automatically on already scheduled observations, we decided to set this limit. Indeed in several cases even a week wouldn’t make such a difference, however there are cases that would.
Some examples are newly deployed satellites, or ISS which changes from time to time orbit etc…
Have also in mind that for the future, there will be an automatic process for scheduling, so you will just set your priorities for your station and then network will take care for the rest. Already there is some progress on the development of the automatic scheduling and it is tested in a couple of stations.