Click here if you are having trouble logging into the forums
Privacy Policy |
Please read our Terms
of Service | Signup and
Troubleshooting FAQ | Problems? PM a Red or a Green Gu.... uh, User
ernodj
member
Reged: 06/12/08
Posts: 17
Loc: Clifton Park, New York
|
|
Hey guys. I saw something interesting in my 10x50s. I caught it with the corner of my naked eye, and turned my binoculars towards it. It appeared to be a very dim satellite. It changed in brightness with a frequency of about 3secs or so. Any thoughts of what it is? I saw it at about 10:05pm Forgive my ignorance. 
|
ronharper
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 02/14/06
Posts: 964
|
|
I'm not into satellite observing, but, consider myself unfortunate that due to having to sleep and get up early, I observe at first dark, when they are a positive nuisance. Often I see two in the same bino field. Usually one goes right through the object I'm trying to look at. They insult the sky. Astronomy is not train spotting. End of rant.
"Blinkers" aren't that rare. I figure if a satellite has flat reflecting surfaces, and is rotating, it can blink. OK, OK, they are kind of cute. I probably see a blinker one night out of four.
Ron
|
GlennLeDrew
sage
Reged: 06/18/08
Posts: 467
Loc: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
|
|
Without knowing where you were observing from, at exactly what time, in which part of the sky the satellite was seen, there's absolutely no way of knowing which satellite it might be. There are literally thousands of working and defunct satellites and bits of garbage whizzing around up there which can be seen in binos.
--------------------
Home-made 11X50 right angle bino, 8.1 deg. FOV
Modified 26X100 bino, 3.5 deg. FOV
Mediocre minds discuss people. Good minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas.
|
DblVision
professor emeritus
Reged: 10/11/06
Posts: 539
Loc: 29.99N 92.15W
|
|
If you were observing from Clifton Park, the APEX sat (94-046A) made a 66-degree elevation pass that reached max elevation at 22:07:10 EDT, per Heavens-Above. Magnitude listed as 4.2. The PPAS guys have a little on this sat. Its booster has a fast period, but was not over your area at that time. Have not seen either myself.
Flashers vary in appearance quite a bit. Regular, irregular, fast, long, etc. Some flash to naked eye visibility, then dim to invisibility even in 50mm bins.
The General Observation forum is where sat guys seem to hang out. Much expertise is there (Ed Cannon, Preston, and others), and I borrow from it regularly.
BTW Ron, I did spot what I think is a short-line owned CF7 still in a Mountain Laurel paint scheme the other day
Edit - Corrected erroneous "CDT" to "EDT"
--------------------
Neal
G.O. Sig 10.5x70
Swift 761 8X42
60mm Spotter
Edited by DblVision (06/27/08 06:35 PM)
|
|
4 registered and 8 anonymous users are browsing this forum.
Moderator: EdZ
Print Thread
|
Forum Permissions
You cannot start new topics
You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled
UBBCode is enabled
|
Thread views: 285
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
[Re: 