Arcturus Traffic Jam

Whew. After a 100F degree day in south Texas, a warm but clear night was a
nice reward. I finally bagged LINEAR K4. Comet was so small and round and
near a familiar globular that I swung over to M3 just to make sure I hadn't
confused the two. Comet seemed dense and almond-shaped, with no discernable
tail fan.

Just after 22:00 CDT, as I slewed off the comet toward Arcturus, a low Earth
orbiter zipped through the field. Nice coincidence. Then, a second later,
another really bright satellite passed through this same small 2 degree
field at a right angle to the first satellite. The 2nd object began to
brighten at transit through Hercules. Nice, I'm thinking an Iridium flare is
coming. Sure enough, this mag 2 orbiter lights up another whole magnitude,
and then passes off to the east and fades into shadow.

I fire up Starry Night Pro, and call up this region. Wow - what I thought
was an Iridium was the Hubble! I guess he has fairly large solar arrays.
Anyone else seen a Hubble flare? (The program ID'ed the other object as a
spent Cosmos series booster).

Had great time with the summer Messiers and a few NGC galaxies, but
artificial targets made the night!

'Clear & Dark,

JW

John Whisenhunt wrote:


Had great time with the summer Messiers and a few NGC galaxies, but
artificial targets made the night!



Satellites can be quite intriguing. Perchance, have you been lucky enough
to see a NOSS satellite formation?




--
Martin
"Photographs From the Universe of Amateur Astronomy"
http://home.earthlink.net/~martinhowell

"Martin R. Howell" wrote in
message nk.net...
John Whisenhunt wrote:

Had great time with the summer Messiers and a few NGC galaxies, but
artificial targets made the night!

Satellites can be quite intriguing. Perchance, have you been lucky
enough
to see a NOSS satellite formation?

Is that two satellites that track in tandem? I saw that a few months ago
and had no explanation for it.

Is that two satellites that track in tandem? I saw that a few months ago
and had no explanation for it.


The two times I have been lucky enough to catch one of these Navy spy
satellite formations, there were three in formation. The formation looked
something like this:


* *



*


There are more than one of these groups up there. I'm not quite sure how
they are linked together. . .
A Google search will provide some information.



--
Martin

"Martin R. Howell" wrote:
Perchance, have you been lucky enough
to see a NOSS satellite formation?

Unfortunately, not yet. But I'm hopeful!

JW

"John Whisenhunt" wrote in message
...
Sure enough, this mag 2 orbiter lights up another whole magnitude,
and then passes off to the east and fades into shadow.

I fire up Starry Night Pro, and call up this region. Wow - what I thought
was an Iridium was the Hubble! I guess he has fairly large solar arrays.
Anyone else seen a Hubble flare?

Yes. Quite often, when I've watched a pass that occurred not too long past
sunset, and when more or less straight overhead, it will flare like that as
it sets in the east. I suppose that make sense. The solar panels will be
facing the sun, and at that point the observer is close to the Hubble-sun
line.

BTW, I watched a pass the night before your observation.

Clear Skies,
Craig in Tampa

"Martin R. Howell" wrote in message
nk.net...
Satellites can be quite intriguing. Perchance, have you been lucky enough
to see a NOSS satellite formation?

I've seen that once. From my light-polluted spot, I needed binoculars to
spot them. After I knew exactly where to look I could see them naked-eye.

After years of watching artificial satellites, seeing them in formation like
that is almost eerie.

Clear Skies,
Craig in Tampa

"Martin R. Howell" wrote in
message ink.net...
Is that two satellites that track in tandem? I saw that a few months
ago
and had no explanation for it.


The two times I have been lucky enough to catch one of these Navy spy
satellite formations, there were three in formation. The formation
looked
something like this:


* *



*


There are more than one of these groups up there. I'm not quite sure
how
they are linked together. . .
A Google search will provide some information.

Yes, yes... I've seen them. I tried to look them up on Starry Night and
Heaven's Above, but no luck. Now I know why. g

Craig MacDougal wrote:
"John Whisenhunt" wrote in message
...
Sure enough, this mag 2 orbiter lights up another whole magnitude,
and then passes off to the east and fades into shadow.

I fire up Starry Night Pro, and call up this region. Wow - what I thought
was an Iridium was the Hubble! I guess he has fairly large solar arrays.
Anyone else seen a Hubble flare?

Yes. Quite often, when I've watched a pass that occurred not too long past
sunset, and when more or less straight overhead, it will flare like that as
it sets in the east. I suppose that make sense. The solar panels will be
facing the sun, and at that point the observer is close to the Hubble-sun
line.

HST varies more in brightness from one pass to the next than any
other satellite I know of. Similar passes can have steady brightness
of -2 one night and barely manage +5 the next. The illuminated
portion can change vastly depending on which way it points with
respect to the sun and the line of sight. It does occasionally
manage very nice flares - -2 isn't all that rare and I've seen
-4. I tend to wave back after one of those.

The most likely sources of HST's flares are the flat back surface and
some smaller surfaces around the tube - since the solar arrays
ideally give only the Sun a specular reflection! However, the
solar arrays do (from Shuttle video) have a fairly broad
back-reflection range, which would make sense for seeing it
flare just before passing into shadow if it was nearly opposite
the sun from your point of view.


Bill Keel