Hi Jeff, Earlier this year I spent an evening observing the geos at a time when a nearly full Moon was very near to the arc. It was a period when the birds were at their brightest , but they became impossible to see once the moon was within about 5 degrees.....So in answer to your question , I very much doubt it would be possible to view a geo transit even when the moon was in an early phase. I have also tried to image a group of geos during a sun outage solar transit , again no joy due to the very small size of the birds at that distance ( 40,000 km) However , to give me an idea of how much of the solar disk the birds would cover , I created this simulation http://www.satcom.freeserve.co.uk/astrasunout.jpg , from two actual images. I was quite surprised how the satellites spread across the solar disk. Just for fun I also created a composite of what the Eutelsat Hotbirds would look like as they tracked in front of M42 ( This would have taken place 1855gmt March 1st 2004 from a location south of Paris ) again using my own images. The results can be seen here http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/satcom_transits/COMPOSITE.jpg and here http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/satcom_transits/IMAGE1A.jpg More geosat fun at : http://www.satcom.freeserve.co.uk/geos.htm (All images subject to copyright restrictions) Regards, John ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Umbarger" <jumbarger2000@yahoo.com> To: <SeeSat-L@satobs.org> Sent: Friday, August 06, 2004 2:20 AM Subject: Geosat Transit Question > Has anyone ever seen a geosat transiting the moon? I > guess it would be hard to pick out due to the speed > and the moon's brightness. Has anyone ever seen a > geosat transit the sun? > > Regards, > Jeff Umbarger > Plano, TX USA > Lat: +33.0695 (N) > Lon: -96.7681 (W) > Alt: 700 ft. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: > http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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