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
Alan French
Night Owl
Reged: 01/28/05
Posts: 1484
Loc: Upstate NY
|
|
I had a great look at TiPS tonight. TiPS (Tether Physics and Survivability Experiment) is a pair of satellites connected by a tether.
The predicted magnitude for tonight's pass was 5.8. This made it a perfect binocular target. With the help of the detail map provided by Heavens-Above, I caught it just as it came out of the Earth's shadow in Hercules, and followed it through Lyra and a bit farther north.
The tether between the satellites was easy in my 12x36 binoculars. The easternmost satellite was visible and quite a bit brighter than the teather every once in a while. The westernmost satellite was seen, but not as brightly or as often.
All in all, a lot of fun. I don't think it would have been possible to spot it without optical aid.
Clear skies, Alan
|
Glassthrower
Vendor - Galactic Stone & Ironworks
Reged: 04/07/05
Posts: 14682
Loc: Hurricane Alley
|
|
Alan -
Thanks for the "TiP" ... I've never heard of this particular satellite(s) before. Did they appear as a pair of closely-spaced dots, like a moving binary star?
MikeG
--------------------
Michael Gilmer - Member of the Meteoritical Society & Collector of Falling Stars.
Galactic Stone & Ironworks - Buy/Sell/Trade Meteorites, Moon Rocks, Mars Rocks, & 35 different falls and types!
|
dgs©
Postmaster
Reged: 03/29/04
Posts: 13899
Loc: West Monroe, Louisiana
|
|
New one on me too. I'll have to keep an eye peeled for that.
--------------------
- david
8"Ø Newtonian on SVP, Moonlite CR2, Telrad
PST Oberwerk Ultra 15x70 Orion Ultraview 10×50
Hand-me-down Sears Refractor (Discoverer) 60mm×900mm
"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world, remains and is immortal." --Albert Pike
|
Rich V.
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 01/02/05
Posts: 983
Loc: Carson Valley, Nevada USA
|
|
A few nights ago I spotted a pair of satellites moving together through the sky in a south-north direction. They were approx mag 6, traveling about 2° apart, one leading the other, though the "follower" was slightly offset higher in the sky. I saw no tether in my 10x35s; both satellites were steady and of equal magnitude.
I have no idea if this was the same object referred to here. Their path was roughly through Hercules/ Lyra, however.
Rich V
--------------------
Binoculars:
33-150x100 Saturn III, 16x70FMT-SX, 10x50 PCF-V, 10x43 DCF-SP, 10x35 E2, 7x35 E, 8x30 E2, 7x26 Custom, 8x23AS Diplomat, 8x23 Travelite
Scopes:
C9.25, 6" f8 reflector, SV80S
|
Alan French
Night Owl
Reged: 01/28/05
Posts: 1484
Loc: Upstate NY
|
|
Quote:
Alan -
Thanks for the "TiP" ... I've never heard of this particular satellite(s) before. Did they appear as a pair of closely-spaced dots, like a moving binary star?
MikeG
MikeG,
The most obvious feature was a ghostly line of light that was always visible. The satellite on the east end of the tether brightened into visibility once in a while, and was quite a bit brighter than the "thread of light." The other satellite was seen less often and was not as bright.
Clear skies, Alan
|
Alan French
Night Owl
Reged: 01/28/05
Posts: 1484
Loc: Upstate NY
|
|
To check for TiPS passes, visit
http://www.heavens-above.com
and enter your location.
From the menu pick "Select a satellite from the database" and either enter TiPS under satellite name or 23937 in US Space Command ID.
Once you get the satellite, click on TiPS in Earth Orbit, and then on "Passes" toward the top of the page. There are some good passes during the next few days for those of us in upstate New York. Joe Bergeron reported a nice view through a 10" Newt, and I plan on taking out a scope next time.
Clear skies, Alan
|
edcannon
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/19/03
Posts: 679
Loc: Austin, Texas
|
|
Quote:
A few nights ago I spotted a pair of satellites moving together through the sky in a south-north direction. They were approx mag 6, traveling about 2° apart, one leading the other, though the "follower" was slightly offset higher in the sky. I saw no tether in my 10x35s; both satellites were steady and of equal magnitude.
I have no idea if this was the same object referred to here. Their path was roughly through Hercules/ Lyra, however.
Rich V
Rich, this was undoubtedly a pair of "NOSS" satellites. There used to be three sets of three (the famous triangles of satellites) and three newer pairs. Now the triangles aren't very good triangles anymore, they're more like pairs with an extra one several degrees away. All of these six pairs travel as you described - with the follower offset from the leader. All of these are nice targets for binoculars, although sometimes especially the older three sets can be very very faint. The newer three pairs tend to be more reliably brighter. (All of them can sometimes do what we call "flare" and be very bright -- easy to see without magnification.) Here's a web page with more information about the NOSS groups:
http://www.satobs.org/noss.html
On that page the ones I talk about above are the second and third generations.
By the way, TiPS went up on the same launch as the NOSS 2-3 trio.
--------------------
Ed Cannon - Austin, Texas, USA
As of 23 August 2008 - Celestron Skymaster 12x60
|
Carol L
Reged: 07/05/04
Posts: 5880
Loc: Tomahawk, WI 45N//89W
|
|
Alan, when I saw the TiPS satellite it was purely by accident.. made me scratch my head till I found out exactly what it was. 
Thanks for the URL, Ed. 
Is there any specific way at H-A to generate a NOSS list? I'd really like to see them but after entering several of the names (common and international designations), I either came up empty or got this:
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e14'
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Line 1: Incorrect syntax near '-'.
/satsearchresults.asp, line 30"
EDIT:
Btw, I downloaded a movie of TiPS a few years ago but can't recall which site I got it from... 'tethered satellite video' should turn something up in Google.
Edited by Carol L (06/01/06 07:16 PM)
|
Alan French
Night Owl
Reged: 01/28/05
Posts: 1484
Loc: Upstate NY
|
|
Quote:
Alan, when I saw the TiPS satellite it was purely by accident.. made me scratch my head till I found out exactly what it was.
Carol,
Actually, it was your post that got me interested in seeing TiPS. Prior to that, I hadn't even heard of the satellite.
Thanks!
Clear skies, Alan
|
edcannon
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/19/03
Posts: 679
Loc: Austin, Texas
|
|
Quote:
Thanks for the URL, Ed.
Is there any specific way at H-A to generate a NOSS list? I'd really like to see them but after entering several of the names (common and international designations), I either came up empty or got this:
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e14'
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Line 1: Incorrect syntax near '-'.
/satsearchresults.asp, line 30"
EDIT:
Btw, I downloaded a movie of TiPS a few years ago but can't recall which site I got it from... 'tethered satellite video' should turn something up in Google.
For the second generation ones, on the H-A Select Satellite page, under common name, I put in "NOSS%" (The % sign is their wildcard.), and I got a list of the first and second generations. The first generation ones (NOSS 0 through NOSS 8) are almost always very faint and mostly no longer triangles at all.
For the third-generation pairs, H-A doesn't have them as NOSS objects. I looked up their catalog numbers elsewhere and put those in and found that they're all "USA" objects. So I put "USA%" in the Common Name field and got a fairly long list. On that list the three third-gen NOSS pairs are:
NOSS 3-1 == USA 160 and USA 160 DEB
NOSS 3-2 == USA 173 and USA 173 DEB
NOSS 3-3 == USA 181 and USA 181 DEB
Even though one of each pair is listed as "DEB", they are not. All three of them have had maneuvers tracked (by amateurs). (By the way, almost all of the "NOSS" and "USA" objects, TiPS, etc., on H-A are there based on data provided by amateur satellites trackers. There are no official data for any of them -- even the names of some of them, e.g., "NOSS", are speculative.)
Regarding the database error -- I got a couple when I tried to get passes for NOSS 2-1. So there's some sort of programming problem.
Regarding the TiPS movie. I may have seen it. Back in 1996 and for a couple of years there was some great TiPS imagery on a navy.mil web site. They imaged its deployment from the USAF Maui installation.
If you like seeing satellites, don't miss EGP (a.k.a. Ajisai -- a real disco ball in space, really rotating and flashing rapidly). I've seen it many times and still try to see it again on every opportunity. It's slow-moving and an easy target for small, handheld binoculars (probably as small as 4x21 I'll bet). Iridium 920 (formerly Iridium 20) is tumbling very rapidly and sometimes gives a spectacular long series of flashes. Two that do what we call "sparkling" briefly on most passes are USA 32 and USA 81. (Most of the time they just vary in brightness and aren't easy to see. But when they sparkle, they're very bright - easy to see without binoculars for about 10-15 seconds.)
--------------------
Ed Cannon - Austin, Texas, USA
As of 23 August 2008 - Celestron Skymaster 12x60
|
Carol L
Reged: 07/05/04
Posts: 5880
Loc: Tomahawk, WI 45N//89W
|
|
Geeze, thanks for all of the info Ed, looks like I'll be busy for quite a while.. the EGP sounds like a real kick! 
--------------------
 *Step-by-Step Lunar Sketching*
CN Gallery
Photo Gallery
8"SCT ~ 120achro ~ 90Mak ~ 80ST ~ 11x70s ~ 22x100s
|
Rich V.
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 01/02/05
Posts: 983
Loc: Carson Valley, Nevada USA
|
|
Quote:
Quote:
A few nights ago I spotted a pair of satellites moving together through the sky in a south-north direction. They were approx mag 6, traveling about 2° apart, one leading the other, though the "follower" was slightly offset higher in the sky. I saw no tether in my 10x35s; both satellites were steady and of equal magnitude.
I have no idea if this was the same object referred to here. Their path was roughly through Hercules/ Lyra, however.
Rich V
Rich, this was undoubtedly a pair of "NOSS" satellites. There used to be three sets of three (the famous triangles of satellites) and three newer pairs. Now the triangles aren't very good triangles anymore, they're more like pairs with an extra one several degrees away. All of these six pairs travel as you described - with the follower offset from the leader. All of these are nice targets for binoculars, although sometimes especially the older three sets can be very very faint. The newer three pairs tend to be more reliably brighter. (All of them can sometimes do what we call "flare" and be very bright -- easy to see without magnification.) Here's a web page with more information about the NOSS groups:
http://www.satobs.org/noss.html
On that page the ones I talk about above are the second and third generations.
By the way, TiPS went up on the same launch as the NOSS 2-3 trio.
Ed, a belated thanks for the information; you are a wealth of satellite info!!
I usually don't pay much attention to the many satellites that pass through my FOV while observing. These "twin" satellites DID catch my attention. I'll have to give these objects more notice in the future...........
Thanks again,
Rich V
|
edcannon
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/19/03
Posts: 679
Loc: Austin, Texas
|
|
I'm happy to help with seeing satellites. It turns out that last night I managed to see TiPS with my 12x60. It was difficult but definitely there, northbound east of the meridian. This was from a suburban location -- house of friends with a nice deck and only a few treetops in the way here and there.
Also yesterday in reviewing faint predictions for here, I found that the NOSS 7 trio (one of the first generation groups listed among the NOSS objects on H-A) are still being maintained in a tight group. However, they're usually very faint; you have to get them on a perigee pass, unless you have powerful optics.
Last night also a payload called Cosmos 2405 reached at least -4 magnitude if not one or two brighter on its way up the sky in the NNW. It was like a very long, very fast-moving very bright Iridium flare. Cosmos 2405 is in a very low orbit -- height was 168 miles (269 km) for my prediction.
|
|
17 registered and 22 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: 691
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
