Recipes¶

This page contains a few common recipes using the functions provided by astro_pi_oribit.

Get the current coordinates of the ISS¶

from astro_pi_orbit import ISS

iss = ISS()
print(ISS.coordinates())

Take a photo and embed it with the current ISS coordinates¶

from picamzero import Camera
from astro_pi_orbit import ISS

iss = ISS()
camera = Camera()

def take_photo(image_name):
    """
    Takes a photo and embeds the current coordinates of the ISS
    into the metadata.
    """
    point = iss.coordinates()
    coordinates = (point.latitude.signed_dms(), point.longitude.signed_dms())
    cam.take_photo(image_name, gps_coordinates=get_gps_coordinates(iss))

take_photo("tagged-img.jpg")

Read the ISS trajectory from the latest two-line-element file¶

from astro_pi_orbit import ISS
iss = ISS()

Get the coordinate of the ISS at a specific time¶

from astro_pi_orbit import ISS
from skyfield.api import load
iss = ISS()
ts = load.timescale()
coordinates = iss.at(ts.utc(2021, 12, 2, 14, 7))
print(coordinates)

Get the position of a planet or the Earth¶

from astro_pi_orbit import de421
earth = de421['earth']
mars = de421['Mars Barycenter']
print(earth, mars)