Hi, The most likely suspects are: 31307 07-016B Galaxy 17 26038 99-071A Galaxy 11 25740 99-027A Nimiq 1 22930 97-038A DBS 1 They would have been near M11 at about 23:10 EDT at 205 degrees azimuth and 40 degrees elevation. If the time is wrong there may be other possibilities. The reason for the close proximity is a question of traffic. Companies reserve a slot in the geostationary belt. The slot is a cube 70km on a side (I think) and the satellite is supposed to be kept in the box. If more than one satellite is placed in the box, then more traffic can be delivered to a single fixed antenna on the ground. The busiest box I have seen is the one occupied by six Astra satellites over 19.2 degrees east south of Europe. They provide Direct-to-Home television. Watched over time, they move considerably inside the box. Cheers, Brian Hunter >From: Skywayinc@aol.com >To: seesat-l@satobs.org >Subject: Observing Report: 4 Geosynchronous Satellites in the Same Field of >View! >Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:56:10 EDT > >Thought some on this list might be interested in this observation. >Ron is a member of the Amateur Observers' Society (AOS) of >New York. He and two other AOS members made this interesting >observation on Wednesday evening from Robert Moses State >Park, located in Suffolk County, Long Island, NY. Anybody want to >take a crack at identifying what these guys saw? > >-- joe rao > >------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Hi everyone, > >A few weeks ago I posted how I saw a geosynchronous satellite drift >out from M11. Well, tonight at Robert moses, I was looking at M11 >again. And wouldn't you know it, this time I see TWO satellites >slowly drifting across the face of M11. But wait, it turned out there >were a total of 4! It was very interesting to see this many clustered >together. They were not equally spaced from one another, nor were >they in a straight line or any apparent pattern. Bill Bradley pulled >out an application on his PDA and gave an estimated location of an >altitude 41.7º, and an azimuth of approx 200º. > >Rich Huber, Bill Bradley, and I took turns watching these dots remain >stationary among the drifting backdrop of stars passing by while >contemplating the purpose of why these satellites were clustered >together. I would estimate them to have been grouped within 20 arc >minutes. > >Cool stuff! > >Ron Lindenfeld >_torbin@optonline.net_ (mailto:torbin@optonline.net) > > > >**************It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your >travel >deal here. >(http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047) > >------------------------------------------------------------------------- >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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