How did Obi-wan know that Anakin was on Tatooine and not Naboo in AOTC?

this thought of mine came out of the "how did maul track down the jedi and queen in TPM?" thread.

in AOTC, Obi-wan is on geonosis and wants to send a message to the jedi but is too far, so decided to send it through his padawan...
How did his ship sensors determine that Anakin wasn't on Naboo, but was instead on Tatooine?

Further, when Obi-wan sends the message, it is received on Padme's personal ship by Artoo. How did Obi-wan know to send it to her ship, since he hadn't known about it before (Anakin, Padme and Artoo had left Coruscant on refugee transport). If his starfighter somehow kept in contact with Anakin's comlink, why didn't the message go to Anakin and not the ship?

Or is the Jedi Starfighter actually tracking Artoo, and Artoo, receiving the message, ports it into the senator's ship's holocomm without noticing that he is doing it (Artoo seems to be engaged doing something else and only after the message starts does he pay attention to it).

or, did Obi-wan's ship send a query to some sort of Naboo operator, and discovered that Anakin had left with Padme, and gave the forwarding 'comm number' of Padme's yacht, and destination of tatooine (not very safe for a naboo dispatch system to be broadcasting the whereabouts of a known target of assassination and her bodyguard, when they are supposed to be in secret mode.)

 

I think his ship is capable of scanning several worlds for the signal of the ship.

 

Obi-Wan scaned for Anakin's signal and found it on Tatooine.

 

anakin's signal being:
his jedi comlink?
his bio-signs?

if jedi can track down the location of someone several planets away using a scanner that fits on their starfighters, how come this technology isn't really used elsewhere?

 

He knew that if Anakin was not on Naboo,he had probrably gone off with Padmen on some adventure.I Guess he just scaned for the ship's transponder code.

 

I think his ship is capable of scanning several worlds for the signal of the ship.

How did he know that they would be using that ship? he'd never encountered it before. last he saw padme and anakin, they were on a refugee freighter, and anakin didn't seem to tell obi-wan that they were leaving tatooine. did someone on naboo tell obi-wan's computer that they left in Padme's shuttle?

if the jedi starfighter can track a ship a few systems away, why can't the imperials ever find the Falcon?

 

Well Obi Wan might have been able to sense Anakin through the force, or at least what direction. His navcomputer could probably tell which planet he was on in the general direction. He could deduct any sensible locations Anakin would want to go to and go there. Leia did it in Vector Prime and tht was just Anakin (Anakin Solo, not Anakin Skywalker). And he doesn't have as many midiclorients as Skywalker so it should be easier to sense, especially for Obi Wan since hes more finely tuned to the Force than Leia

 

both seem doubtful, anakin didn't seem to broadcast a message out saying that he was now on tatooine or leaving naboo. and if obi-wan felt anakin's disobeyance in the force, why search for his signal on naboo first and not set for a wider range initially?

ultimately, we got a bit of a plot gap here:
--if the jedi starfighter's sensors picked up anakin's life-signs on tatooine, how did they know to send a message to the senator's yacht?
--if the jedi starfighter's sensors picked up anakin's comlink on tatooine, why not send a message to the comlink and not to the senator's yacht? (did anakin turn it off or otherwise leave it on the ship?)
--if the jedi starfighter's sensors picked up on artoo's whereabouts, why have it appear that the message was routed to the ship, and artoo only pays attention to it after a few moments after it starts?
--since the message was sent to padme's shuttle, how did obi-wan know about that ship, and its comm code?


aie.. eequo made an edit, removing the first of eequo's two surmises.

 

"That's Anakin's tracking signal alright, but it's coming from Tatooine. What in the blazes is he doing there?"
- Obi-Wan Kenobi, AOTC

It was sent to Anakin's comm, I would imagine, which he left on the ship?

 

Anakin has a tracking device on his belt. It's so his Master can find him in times of trouble.

Actually, Guin's right. It was his "cell phone" that R4 tracked to Tatooine.

What if Anakin was abducted, captured or lost, or hurt? He needs to be in contact.

 

Obi-Wan had no idea Anakin was on Tatooine. Both the movie and the novelization show him actually seaching for where to find his Padwan by using Anakin's tracking signal. And in both sources he was shocked to see it was coming from Tatooine. Considering he was able to contact Padme's ship using Anakin's tracking signal, I'd guess Anakin actually left his comlink aboard her ship and that it possesed some kind of holocapability. Indeed, if memory serves we see one of the ARC Troopers wrist mounted comlink possesed such a capability.

 

Perhaps Anakin actually was prudent enough to put his signal onto the ship's transmitter, so R4 and the Jedi Starfighter wouldn't have too much trouble finding him if Obi Wan really got in a pot of stew.

 

The comm system on a ship like Padme's can probably monitor several frequencies at once. It's possible that Anakin entered his own comlink frequency into the comm system in case Obi-Wan or the JC were looking for him. I'm sure the ship is monitoring Padme's personal comlink frequency too in case Palpatine, Queen Jamillia, Captain Typho or her family needed her. Obi-Wan didn't need to know where he was as long as his personal comlink was still in range of the Jedi Starfighter's comm system. He sent the signal towards Naboo because that is where he assumed he would be, but then widened the search to include neighboring sectors until it found his signal on Tattooine. If Anakin had been further Coreward this probably wouldn't have worked.

 

The only problem with Padme's ship monitoring several frequencies comes from the comm signal itself. Obi-Wan sends the signal directly to Anakin's comlink. Which would mean that two comm systems should have recieved the message using that theory, Anakin's comlink and the communit on Padme's ship. But only one recieved it. Furthermore, due to the nature of missions like the one Obi-Wan was on, the message would have probably been sent over a secure frequency and possibly encoded, with only the right equipment being able to decode it quickly enough to still allow for real-time communications. It become's unlikely that even if Padme's ship were monitoring several frequencies that it would be programmed with the proper programs for decoding a Jedi comm frequency.

 

He read the script.