Re: Satellite Occultations of the Sun

From: Tony Beresford (aberesford@iprimus.com.au)
Date: Tue Mar 27 2001 - 04:02:18 PST

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    At 16:10 27/03/01 , Patrick Walsh wrote:
    I used SatSpy's cone filter today and
    >found that a Cosmos rocket would be traversing the
    >sun, so I set up my 10" dob with a piece of paper to
    >project the image onto, but I saw nothing.  Can
    >someone provide more info?
    >
    Patrick, it is more proper to call the events you are
    describing as transits not occultations. They occur for both
    the Sun and the Moon. You have to remember somethings though.
    1. They dont take long to happen , less than a second.
    2. You need a large satellite. I would choose ISS as best
       current target. Or check out the size.
    3. satellite silhouette's less than your confusion disk
       caused by local "seeing" are  rather low contrast.
    4. Irradiation causes small black dots seen against a bright
        background to disappear. If the angular size is less than
        the diffraction disk you wont see it.
    5. Since you need to be sure of it crossing the disk,
       you need elements to be current as possible.
    Tony Beresford
    
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