File formats
Observation CSV
One line per measurement: time, line of sight, and optionally range, magnitude and phase.
norad,object,station_id,obs_id,date,magnitude,phase_angle,distance,ra,dec,azimuth,true_elevationColumns in any order; comma, semicolon or tab separated. Lines starting with # are ignored.
| Column | Required | Unit | Accepted names |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time | yes | ISO 8601, UTC | date, time, utc, datetime, epoch, timestamp, date_obs, obs_time |
| Line of sight | yes | degrees | azimuth + true_elevation (or elevation, or apparent_elevation), or ra + dec |
| Range | no | km | distance, range, range_km, distance_km, slant_range |
| Magnitude | no | mag | magnitude, mag, vmag, mag_v |
| Phase angle | no | degrees | phase_angle, phase, phase_deg, solar_phase_angle |
| Object | no | — | norad, object |
| Station, series | no | — | station_id, obs_id |
- RA/Dec are read as J2000 and precessed to the date. When the file gives both RA/Dec and az/el, the station can be recovered from the angles.
- When only the apparent elevation is given, refraction (under 0.1° above 10°) is neglected.
- Without a range column, the range set in LightCurve is used.
- Series: lines are grouped by object, station and observation id; a gap of more than 3 hours starts a new series.