Robert Matson replied to Bruno Tilgner
> Hi Bruno,
>
> > Even satellites in low earth orbit, which would be at a distance of 1000
> > to 2000 km from the observer, cannot be seen because the image would
> > be wiped out by atmospheric turbulence.
>
> Perhaps at 2000 km range, but at 1000 km a 10-meter
> object subtends 2 arcseconds. This is within the
> realm of possibility. And with a larger satellite like
> Mir, ISS or the Shuttle (where the range can also be
> quite a bit less than 1000 km), observation should be
> no problem at all.
[snip]
In addition, the extreme brightness of the solar disk should make
short-exposure imaging fairly easy, thus offering the possibility of evading
turbulence-caused seeing effects. Granted, the short duration of the
transit would limit the number of exposures taken during any one session,
but it would be worth trying. A morning transit, before solar heating had
stirred up the surface layers of air, or a site like Big Bear Lake
(http://www.bbso.njit.edu/) would give the best chance. Morning transit
would imply, of course, greater range and less linear resolution -- probably
a coastal site with ocean or large lake to the east would be best, as that
would extend the low-turbulence period later into the day.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jan 26 2001 - 13:53:49 PST