Last fews days Satelite sightings

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

Did anyone see any of the Satellite's. I looked out for 3 days. Eventually I did see one. I know a few of you members are stargazers. I am sure Neil must have tracked a few. Also noticed how bright Venus was. Only thing I have is my eyes & a Samsung Galaxy S8. Which takes terrible pictures in the dark. I need an Observatory.

Steve.

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

[Joseph Noci 1Participant @josephnoci1]

Not sure what Sats you wish to observe…If you have a clear sky after sunset, generally between 19H00 and 20H00, maybe till 21H00, many satellites will be visible to the naked eye. It's a 'hobby' my Wife and I practice when camping out in the bush or desert, after dinner! Our record is 21 Sats in one evening, and I do not recall ever seeing less than 4 in an evening..

You can also try using one of the various orbital prediction programs out there, and set it up to do the prediction for Sun and Satellite elevation angles that place the detection more overhead rather than near the horizon. The program will provide azimuth and elevation angles versus time of day, so you can know where to look. That's cheating, but..

I download weather images from the orbiting NOAA Sats with software that uses the prediction data to know when and where to listen for that Sat.

The software I use for predictions is ORBITRON, by Sebastian Stoff. Its about 10 or more years old, but works well, shows a flattened globe view with orbital paths, times, etc. Its free as well. There are many others on the net.

You also need to provide the prediction software with data – Keplarian elements – which are basically a data set describing the satellites orbital decay, motion, eccentricity and mean anomaly, among other things. You do not need to know anything about these elements, just need to download the elements for the Sats you wish to track, and then the prediction software can access and use said elements. The elements age, and you need to download new element sets regularly. For simple eye observation, element updates every 3 or so months is good enough for most Sats. For accurate tracking, within a degree or two, monthly updates are required.

The Kep Elements are easily downloaded from CELESTRAK.com.

Happy Viewing!

Joe

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I've had dozens streaking across my astrophotos over the last few days.

I haven't seen Starlink yet but those who have say they look impressive but they are not welcomed by astronomers!

<grumble mode> Apparently Elon Musk has agreed to make them a bit darker which will make them about a magnitude less bright, but I really can't see why his satellites need to be so much more reflective than everyone else's, especially as they are so numerous and move in groups.

</grumble mode>

Fortunately there are statistical techniques we can use to get rid of them and aircraft lights, gamma ray traces from stacked images, but they are more troublesome for big telescopes taking long single exposures for photometry etc.

Neil

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Less heat issues maybe.

regards Martin

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