> ... what is the limit (approximate magnitude) that still can be > > seen without any binocular or telescope? Jay Respler wrote: > It's exactly the same as looking at the stars. Whatever your stellar mag limit > is, it is the same for sats. I don't think it's the same. Photo receptors in the retina have to be hit by a minimum amount of photons per second to yield a perceptible output to the brain. If you look at a star at the magnitude limit its light will concentrate on one spot of the retina. An equally bright (fast moving) satellite will not be visible because its light does not stimulate an individual receptor long enough. Of course you might succeed to exactly follow the satellite with your eyes but I can't imaginge that this works precisely enough. Christian Christian Ackermann 50.0135N 08.2413E 185 m ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Apr 28 2000 - 18:51:10 PDT