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astronomy-mcp-server: get satellite passes

astronomy_get_satellite_passes
Read-onlyIdempotent

Predict visible passes of a satellite (e.g. the ISS, NORAD 25544) over an observer in the next days. Identify the satellite by exactly one of norad_id or name — supplying both, or neither, is rejected. A few well-known common names resolve directly to their catalog numbers, ignoring case: ISS or International Space Station (25544), Hubble, Hubble Space Telescope, or HST (20580), and Tiangong, CSS, or Chinese Space Station (48274). Any other name is matched as a case-insensitive substring of CelesTrak's catalog names, so it resolves only when it picks out a single object: a broader query comes back with the matching objects and their catalog numbers to choose from. Either way the result echoes the query that resolved it as resolved_from_name. Fetches the object's current GP element set from CelesTrak, propagates it with SGP4 in-process, and returns each pass's rise, peak, and set times with azimuths and the peak elevation. Only passes that are naked-eye-plausible are returned — the satellite must be sunlit at peak while the observer's sky is dark. Every returned pass rises within the requested window: a pass already underway at start is omitted rather than reported with start as its rise, so back up start to see it, while a pass still up when the window ends is reported through its actual set. A start further than about a month from the element set's epoch is rejected as out of range on that distance alone, and an element set that will not propagate to a window inside that horizon is rejected as a reentry — so an empty passes means only that nothing was visible. CelesTrak publishes only current element sets, so in practice start must be within about a month of today. NORAD catalog numbers and catalog names are found at celestrak.org or heavens-above.com. This is a gated, network-backed extension (CelesTrak is keyless but rate-limited; element sets are cached briefly). Default elevation 0 m; pass an IANA timezone for observer-local pass times.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
daysNoNumber of days ahead to search for passes. Default 7, max 10.
nameNoSatellite name to resolve, e.g. "ISS (ZARYA)". The common names ISS, International Space Station, Hubble, Hubble Space Telescope, HST, Tiangong, CSS, and Chinese Space Station resolve directly to their catalog numbers, ignoring case and surrounding whitespace. Any other name is matched against CelesTrak as a case-insensitive substring of the catalog name, so give the fullest name you have — a short one matches many objects and is rejected as ambiguous. Mutually exclusive with `norad_id` — supply exactly one.
startNoSearch start as an ISO 8601 UTC string, within about a month of the current element set's epoch — for a tracked object that epoch is hours old, so in practice within about a month of today. A start further out is rejected rather than answered from elements that no longer describe the orbit. Defaults to now. A value with no zone designator is read as UTC, not the local zone of the server process.
latitudeYesObserver latitude in decimal degrees, north positive.
norad_idNoNORAD catalog number of the satellite, e.g. 25544 for the ISS. Found at celestrak.org or heavens-above.com. Mutually exclusive with `name` — supply exactly one.
timezoneNoIANA timezone for localized pass times, e.g. "America/Los_Angeles". When omitted, output is UTC-only.
elevationNoObserver elevation in meters above sea level. Default 0.
longitudeYesObserver longitude in decimal degrees, east positive.

Output Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
errorNoPresent when the call failed. Absent on success.
passesNoVisible passes (sunlit satellite over a dark-enough sky) in the requested window, chronological.
norad_idNoThe NORAD catalog number echoed from the request.
totalCountNoNumber of visible passes found in the window.
satellite_nameNoSatellite name as CelesTrak catalogs it (the element set's OBJECT_NAME).
resolved_from_nameNoThe name query that resolved this object. Present only when the request supplied `name` rather than `norad_id`.

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

  1. Changed1 schema field changed
    • changedInput schema / properties / name / description
      Previous value: -"Satellite name to resolve against CelesTrak, e.g. \"ISS (ZARYA)\". Matched as a case-insensitive substring of the catalog name, so give the fullest name you have — a short one matches many objects and is rejected as ambiguous. Mutually exclusive with `norad_id` — supply exactly one."New value: +"Satellite name to resolve, e.g. \"ISS (ZARYA)\". The common names ISS, International Space Station, Hubble, Hubble Space Telescope, HST, Tiangong, CSS, and Chinese Space Station resolve directly to their catalog numbers, ignoring case and surrounding whitespace. Any other name is matched against CelesTrak as a case-insensitive substring of the catalog name, so give the fullest name you have — a short one matches many objects and is rejected as ambiguous. Mutually exclusive with `norad_id` — supply exactly one."
  2. Changed6 schema fields changed
    • changedInput schema / $schema
      Previous value: -"http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#"New value: +"https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
    • addedInput schema / additionalProperties
      Added value: +false
    • changedOutput schema / $schema
      Previous value: -"http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#"New value: +"https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
    • addedOutput schema / anyOf
      Added value: +[
      +  {
      +    "not": {
      +      "required": [
      +        "error"
      +      ]
      +    },
      +    "required": [
      +      "norad_id",
      +      "passes",
      +      "totalCount"
      +    ]
      +  },
      +  {
      +    "required": [
      +      "error"
      +    ]
      +  }
      +]
    • addedOutput schema / properties / error
      Added value: +{
      +  "additionalProperties": {},
      +  "description": "Present when the call failed. Absent on success.",
      +  "properties": {
      +    "code": {
      +      "description": "JSON-RPC error code for this failure.",
      +      "maximum": 9007199254740991,
      +      "minimum": -9007199254740991,
      +      "type": "integer"
      +    },
      +    "data": {
      +      "additionalProperties": {},
      +      "properties": {
      +        "reason": {
      +          "description": "Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `invalid_time`: The start timestamp is not a parseable ISO 8601 instant, or names a calendar date that does not exist (e.g. 2026-02-30). `time_out_of_range`: The start instant is outside the SGP4 high-accuracy span (≈1900–2100), or more than about a month from the epoch of the current element set — checked on the epoch distance itself, since SGP4 keeps returning positions well past the point where the mean elements describe the orbit. `invalid_timezone`: The `timezone` value is not an IANA zone this runtime knows. `invalid_target`: Neither `norad_id` nor `name` was supplied, or both were. `tle_not_found`: CelesTrak has no current element set for the NORAD ID. `satellite_name_not_found`: No current CelesTrak object has a name containing the `name` value. `ambiguous_satellite_name`: The `name` value matches more than one current object and none of them carries it as their whole name. The error names the match count and lists the matching objects with their catalog numbers, capped when there are more than the list holds. A capped list carries a hint leading with narrowing instead of with the list, since the wanted object need not be among the ones shown. `object_decayed`: A current element set will not propagate to a window near its own epoch — the signature of an object that has reentered. `celestrak_unavailable`: The element-set fetch failed after retries, or returned a body that is not JSON at all. `malformed_element_set`: CelesTrak answered with parsable JSON whose GP record does not carry the fields an OMM element set requires — a permanent property of that record, not the transient outage celestrak_unavailable covers. The same request returns the same record, so retrying it can only fail again. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler.",
      +          "examples": [
      +            "invalid_time",
      +            "time_out_of_range",
      +            "invalid_timezone",
      +            "invalid_target",
      +            "tle_not_found",
      +            "satellite_name_not_found",
      +            "ambiguous_satellite_name",
      +            "object_decayed",
      +            "celestrak_unavailable",
      +            "malformed_element_set"
      +          ],
      +          "type": "string"
      +        },
      +        "recovery": {
      +          "additionalProperties": {},
      +          "description": "Actionable next step for the caller.",
      +          "properties": {
      +            "hint": {
      +              "type": "string"
      +            }
      +          },
      +          "required": [
      +            "hint"
      +          ],
      +          "type": "object"
      +        },
      +        "retryable": {
      +          "description": "Whether retrying may succeed.",
      +          "type": "boolean"
      +        }
      +      },
      +      "type": "object"
      +    },
      +    "message": {
      +      "description": "Human-readable description of what went wrong.",
      +      "type": "string"
      +    }
      +  },
      +  "required": [
      +    "code",
      +    "message"
      +  ],
      +  "type": "object"
      +}
    • removedOutput schema / required
      Removed value: -[
      -  "norad_id",
      -  "passes",
      -  "totalCount"
      -]
  3. Changed1 schema field changed
    • changedInput schema / properties / start / description
      Previous value: -"Search start as an ISO 8601 UTC string, within about a month of the current element set's epoch — for a tracked object that epoch is hours old, so in practice within about a month of today. A start further out is rejected rather than answered from elements that no longer describe the orbit. Defaults to now."New value: +"Search start as an ISO 8601 UTC string, within about a month of the current element set's epoch — for a tracked object that epoch is hours old, so in practice within about a month of today. A start further out is rejected rather than answered from elements that no longer describe the orbit. Defaults to now. A value with no zone designator is read as UTC, not the local zone of the server process."
  4. Changed1 schema field changed
    • changedInput schema / properties / start / description
      Previous value: -"Search start as an ISO 8601 UTC string, within about a month of today — the current element set cannot be propagated further. Defaults to now."New value: +"Search start as an ISO 8601 UTC string, within about a month of the current element set's epoch — for a tracked object that epoch is hours old, so in practice within about a month of today. A start further out is rejected rather than answered from elements that no longer describe the orbit. Defaults to now."
  5. Changed6 schema fields changed
    • addedInput schema / oneOf
      Added value: +[
      +  {
      +    "not": {
      +      "required": [
      +        "name"
      +      ]
      +    },
      +    "required": [
      +      "norad_id"
      +    ],
      +    "type": "object"
      +  },
      +  {
      +    "not": {
      +      "required": [
      +        "norad_id"
      +      ]
      +    },
      +    "required": [
      +      "name"
      +    ],
      +    "type": "object"
      +  }
      +]
    • addedInput schema / properties / name
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Satellite name to resolve against CelesTrak, e.g. \"ISS (ZARYA)\". Matched as a case-insensitive substring of the catalog name, so give the fullest name you have — a short one matches many objects and is rejected as ambiguous. Mutually exclusive with `norad_id` — supply exactly one.",
      +  "type": "string"
      +}
    • changedInput schema / properties / norad_id / description
      Previous value: -"NORAD catalog number of the satellite, e.g. 25544 for the ISS. Found at celestrak.org or heavens-above.com."New value: +"NORAD catalog number of the satellite, e.g. 25544 for the ISS. Found at celestrak.org or heavens-above.com. Mutually exclusive with `name` — supply exactly one."
    • changedInput schema / required
      Previous value: -[
      -  "norad_id",
      -  "latitude",
      -  "longitude"
      -]New value: +[
      +  "latitude",
      +  "longitude"
      +]
    • addedOutput schema / properties / resolved_from_name
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "The name query that resolved this object. Present only when the request supplied `name` rather than `norad_id`.",
      +  "type": "string"
      +}
    • changedOutput schema / properties / satellite_name / description
      Previous value: -"Satellite name from the TLE header, when present."New value: +"Satellite name as CelesTrak catalogs it (the element set's OBJECT_NAME)."
  6. First observed

TDQS

A4.6/5.0
Behavior5/5

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

The description exceeds annotations by disclosing network dependency, rate limits, caching, and gated access; visibility filtering (sunlit at peak, dark sky); pass-window edge cases; and rejection reasons for out-of-range start or reentry. No contradiction with readOnlyHint, idempotentHint, or openWorldHint.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Conciseness4/5

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

The description is long but front-loaded with purpose and key constraints; each paragraph covers a coherent topic. Some sentences rephrase schema defaults (elevation, timezone) and could be trimmed, but the density is justified by the tool's complexity.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Completeness5/5

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

For a complex, network-backed tool with 8 parameters, the description covers identification rules, filtering behavior, edge cases, network implications, and output semantics. An output schema exists, so the description need not enumerate return fields; nothing an agent needs to call it correctly appears missing.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Parameters4/5

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

Schema coverage is 100%, so the baseline is 3; the description adds real semantics beyond the schema by explaining name resolution rules, the oneOf constraint, start-window behavior, and observer elevation/timezone defaults. It doesn't go into every parameter detail, but supplies integration logic the schema omits.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Purpose5/5

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

The opening sentence states the tool predicts visible satellite passes over an observer within a given window, naming the ISS as an example. It clearly distinguishes from siblings like astronomy_get_rise_set or astronomy_get_ephemeris by focusing on satellite passes with visibility criteria.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Usage Guidelines4/5

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

Provides detailed usage constraints: exactly one of norad_id or name must be supplied, both/neither rejected; common names resolve directly; ambiguous names return options; start window constrained to about a month; passes already underway omitted; network/rate-limit context. However, it never explicitly names sibling tools or says when not to use this tool in favor of another, so it stops short of 'when/when-not' guidance.

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.

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