[amsat-bb] Re: sirius orbit name?

[Rick Mann <rmann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Feb 21, 2008, at 2:10 PM, melachri@speakeasy.net wrote:

> You are confusing geosynchronous with geostationary. Geosynchronous  
> simply means that the orbit period is equal to one sidereal day, so  
> it's "synchronized" with the earth's rotation. As a result, it will  
> always trace the same pattern on the earth's surface. The orbit  
> shape can be just about anything as long as the period is 23 hours,  
> 56 minutes, 4.1 seconds.
>
> A special case of geosynchronous orbits is the geostationary orbit,  
> which as you point out, is circular with zero inclination. As its  
> name indicates, it appears stationary to an earth observer, so the  
> "pattern" on the earth's surface is simply the single sub-satellite  
> point.


My bad. I thought it meant that its longitude never changed. I guess  
there's no special name for a circular geosynchronous orbit (such that  
the ground track is a line segment of constant longitude).

-- 
Rick

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