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New User - Weirdest Sats or Objects You Have Observed?
In article ,
wrote: I'm new to this newsgroup Welcome! Could anyone share the most interesting or unusual sat-type things they have seen in their experiences tracking? You know, bizarre flares, etc.? Well, last night I saw a NOSS trio for the first time. That would have stopped me in my tracks had I not been expecting it. ;-) Iridium flares are a definite "what the hell was that??!" experience. But the weirdest satellite I've ever seen was the Tethered Satellite System that broke (was cut?) loose from the Shuttle some years ago. Paul Maley has photos of it he http://www.eclipsetours.com/sat/tether.html With things in the sky usually being round, seeing a long straight vertical line gliding through the sky was *really* weird! Patty |
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New User - Weirdest Sats or Objects You Have Observed?
In article ,
wrote: I'm new to this newsgroup Welcome! Could anyone share the most interesting or unusual sat-type things they have seen in their experiences tracking? You know, bizarre flares, etc.? Well, last night I saw a NOSS trio for the first time. That would have stopped me in my tracks had I not been expecting it. ;-) Iridium flares are a definite "what the hell was that??!" experience. But the weirdest satellite I've ever seen was the Tethered Satellite System that broke (was cut?) loose from the Shuttle some years ago. Paul Maley has photos of it he http://www.eclipsetours.com/sat/tether.html With things in the sky usually being round, seeing a long straight vertical line gliding through the sky was *really* weird! Patty |
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New User - Weirdest Sats or Objects You Have Observed?
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New User - Weirdest Sats or Objects You Have Observed?
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New User - Weirdest Sats or Objects You Have Observed?
Wow, thanks for those interesting bits! What as the "NOSS Trio"?
"Patty Winter" wrote in message ... In article , wrote: I'm new to this newsgroup Welcome! Could anyone share the most interesting or unusual sat-type things they have seen in their experiences tracking? You know, bizarre flares, etc.? Well, last night I saw a NOSS trio for the first time. That would have stopped me in my tracks had I not been expecting it. ;-) Iridium flares are a definite "what the hell was that??!" experience. But the weirdest satellite I've ever seen was the Tethered Satellite System that broke (was cut?) loose from the Shuttle some years ago. Paul Maley has photos of it he http://www.eclipsetours.com/sat/tether.html With things in the sky usually being round, seeing a long straight vertical line gliding through the sky was *really* weird! Patty |
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New User - Weirdest Sats or Objects You Have Observed?
Wow, thanks for those interesting bits! What as the "NOSS Trio"?
"Patty Winter" wrote in message ... In article , wrote: I'm new to this newsgroup Welcome! Could anyone share the most interesting or unusual sat-type things they have seen in their experiences tracking? You know, bizarre flares, etc.? Well, last night I saw a NOSS trio for the first time. That would have stopped me in my tracks had I not been expecting it. ;-) Iridium flares are a definite "what the hell was that??!" experience. But the weirdest satellite I've ever seen was the Tethered Satellite System that broke (was cut?) loose from the Shuttle some years ago. Paul Maley has photos of it he http://www.eclipsetours.com/sat/tether.html With things in the sky usually being round, seeing a long straight vertical line gliding through the sky was *really* weird! Patty |
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New User - Weirdest Sats or Objects You Have Observed?
Hey, c'mon everyone--Bill and I aren't the only ones who have
seen weird satellites! Who else has seen something interesting-- either one we've mentioned or a different one? Patty |
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New User - Weirdest Sats or Objects You Have Observed?
Hey, c'mon everyone--Bill and I aren't the only ones who have
seen weird satellites! Who else has seen something interesting-- either one we've mentioned or a different one? Patty |
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New User - Weirdest Sats or Objects You Have Observed?
says...
Hey, c'mon everyone--Bill and I aren't the only ones who have seen weird satellites! Who else has seen something interesting-- I must echo Patty that the Tethered Satellite System in 1996 was the weirdest, like a fluorescent light crossing the sky. That was partly what got me started watching satellites. I'll add the following: 23973 96-029F TiPS (current tethered system, telescope required) 19460 88-078A USA 32 (* note below) 21949 92-023A USA 81 (* note below) 16908 86-061A EGP/Ajisai (echo Bill; and it's easy to see with binocs) * USA 32 and USA 81 are apparently identical objects that on many of their passes (as seen from here at least) for a few seconds brighten a lot and flash madly -- such that Mike McCants calls it "sparkling". This sparkling is almost always visible without magnification but of course is better with binocs or telescope. Most of a pass they are pretty faint with regular flashing every 2 or 3 seconds. There are a number of other objects that flash rapidly at least from time to time; some of the best are tumbling (out of service) Iridiums, whose repeated flashes, some as fast as once per second, can be almost as bright as regular Iridium flares. See a recent SeeSat-L message from Daniel Deak (to whose list I'd add SCD 2 and FAST): http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Jul-2003/0025.html Seeing any of the three NOSS 2 trios without binoculars is quite an odd sight -- a triangle of slow-moving satellites crossing the sky at a fairly slow pace. My experience is that the best passes here are southbound evening passes during the summer. Much of the year, including other summer passes, they can be very faint, hard to find even with binoculars. Two other types of things I want to mention a (1) Centaur stage fuel ventings, which create a temporary artificial nebula that can be seen without magnification. I've seen two of them. Some people saw one of these from the Atlas Centaur launch the other day. There are other things similar to this, including some Delta and Ariane launches, I believe. (2) Flaring geosats, including close pairs visible without magnification. Around the equinoxes, with the optimum dates depending upon your latitude, many operational 3-axis stabilized geostationary satellites can brighten by up to ten magnitudes (!!) for a little while before and after entering the Earth's shadow. It is quite something to see without magnification a pair of +3 "stars" that turn out to be standing still while the real stars move past them (as confirmed by observing them with binoculars or telescope). Here's a SeeSat-L message of mine about this phenomenon: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Feb-2003/0461.html Ed Cannon - - Austin, Texas, USA (Remove "donotspam".) http://wnt.cc.utexas.edu/~ecannon/satellite.htm |
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