The entire space station rotates to point toward the Sun whenever the ATM is in use, though I think this also became the permanent orientation of Skylab to prevent its interiors from heating up after it got damagedBut I wonder how to get the Telescope end to aim at the Sun?
Here's some of Skylab's TLE data retrieved from CelesTrak:Trying find orbit info.
Yeah. I read it in the Skylab operations manual two weeks ago. There were basically three "modes":The entire space station rotates to point toward the Sun whenever the ATM is in use, though I think this also became the permanent orientation of Skylab to prevent its interiors from heating up after it got damaged

BrianJ made the tracking feature code for the HST_EX addon, which Max-Q adopted for his Better ISS addon. Alternatively, we could install/dock a CMG for the suntrackingNot sure if there is a way to program that feature.
The CMGs weren't coded specifically for the solar arrays.... it's for the movement/orientation of the entire space station itselfBut as I understand it that is for the animation of the solar arrays. For skylab it would need to move the cmgs, right?
std:string GetAstrMesh(const UACS::AstrInfo& astrInfo) { std::string configFile = std::format("Vessels/{}.cfg", astrInfo.className); FILEHANDLE hConfig = oapiOpenFile(configFile.c_str(), FILE_IN_ZEROONFAIL, CONFIG); if (!hConfig) return {}; char buffer[256]; bool read = oapiReadItem_string(hConfig, "SuitMesh", buffer); oapiCloseFile(hConfig, FILE_IN_ZEROONFAIL); return read ? buffer : {}; }
Yes, So the CMg move skylab around. But can it move and track the sun?The CMGs weren't coded specifically for the solar arrays.... it's for the movement/orientation of the entire space station itself
Not a miracleMy brain is hurting form the mesh of Skylab.
I fear we'll never get such an accurate simulation of it again. And it's actually sad the program didn't get that much attention in the 1970s, except its orbital demise in 1979. Without the internet, there wouldn't even be a lot of detailed information.