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Post by BillW on Apr 25, 2014 8:35:17 GMT
Hi, I had a camera running last night with a bare 12mm f0.8 lens on it from 22.15 to 4.20 local. Only a handful of meteors but the sky is simply polluted with satellites!, I have never caught so many. An adjustment to the slow object filters seems necessary! Since this is a fast optic with a faint mag limit what I found interesting is the groupings of satellites, little mobile constellations that are visible. The variety of orbits is also fascinating as well as the occasional dazzling bright glint (al la Iridium style) from solar panels. A pain in the neck to double check but I wonder who these all belong too.... cheers, Bill.
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Post by stewartw on Apr 25, 2014 13:17:15 GMT
Hi Bill, Yes, there's a lot of it about - see the back page of orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv18i1.pdf - and that's just the stuff the US publically acknowedges it's tracking - guess when the Chinese did their ballistic anti-sat test and a few months later Iridium 33 was involved in an on-orbit collision! We're getting towards that time of year when the shadow cone of the earth is, from the perspective of observers at high northern latitudes, getting low down to the horizon ... as a consequence, satellites in earth orbit spend more time in sunlight and less time in the earth's shadow, hence they are visible for longer periods of time. Aurorae / Summer Twilight / Satellites ... dunno why you live up there :-) Cheers William
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