Upnow

The Upnow script reads a source file or the default Sun/Moon/Planet ephemeris and produces a postscript graphic plot of rise, transit and set with Universal Time and Local Sidereal Time grids also plotted.

Each line of the plot includes the source name and a shaded curve that combines elevation and gain curve information. The gain curve applied is dependent on the frequency entered by the user when the upnow program is initialized. Separate gain corrections are applied for frequency entries in the following ranges; 18-24 GHz (K-Band), 36-50 GHz (Q-Band) and 80-115 GHz (3mm).

USAGE:
user@fourier>upnow

The user will then see the following set of questions to answer. If the desired Sourcelist is different from the default, be sure to include the path if the sourcelist is not in the default directory (that is, the directory that "upnow" was opened from).

UpNow:
Sourcelist is (Planets), ..change to
Year and day are 1998 254, ..change to
Frequency is 86.200 GHz, ..change to
Gain parameters El0 S U are 40.30 8.713E-08 0.000E+00, ..change to
Atmospheric tau is 0.2000 nepers, ..change to

What should I do with your UpNow PostScript output?

Trashcan it; I don't want it................................[0]
Print it on fourier's LaserJet (Console)..............[1]
Print it on dopey's LaserJet (VLBI office west).[2]
Print it on NetJet (Front hall of Haystack).........[3]
View it with Ghostview.....................................[4]
(You must be in X mode with DISPLAY set)
Save it in file UpNow.ps (appending)................[5]
End.

A sample of the output plot of the Sun/Moon/Planet Ephemeris file can be downloaded here:

Download: PDF (9 kB), Postscript (7 kB)

You will note from the illustration, that several curves have a center dip, and the shading does not fill the curve from rise to set. The shading represents optimum gain for the entered frequency, and the dip represents elevations above (~65 degrees) optimum gain.

For more information on UpNow, refer to the original UpNow memorandum:

Download: PDF (40 kB)