A few questions. Does anybody know of a simulation that demonstrates how any of the various flares are produced by a iridium satellite? Showing an image of the satellite appearing to turn with a specular reflection occurring off a certain reflective flat area would be nice. I'm thinking that that would be an especially meaningful for a newcomer anyway, to get a feel for what it is that he/she is seeing happen. I for one would also like to see a simple animation demonstrating just how fast the light reflected from a iridium satellite cruises along the ground. I know it's fast! I can imagine it in my mind but it sure would be nice to actually see it cross a relatively small area that most of us are familar with. I once read somewhere that the reflection itself is something like 100 km across. ?? That must mean that only the very center portion must be particularly bright. Does the "spot of light" on the ground obey the rules of shape similar to that produced by a pinhole camera? If so, then during an eclipse of the sun (as seen from the satellite) the flare prediction would definitely not be accurate for more reasons than one. Clear skies for everyone tonight! Tom NE Iowa USA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bjorn Gimle" <b_gimle@algonet.se> To: <SeeSat-L@satobs.org> Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2002 2:59 AM Subject: Re: Envisat Image > Although not a project for your simulator, I consider images of a tumbling > satellite, e.g. Iridium, of which there are several, would be interesting. > > Without knowing the mass distribution I cannot foresee around which axis > they tumble, and because of the many reflecting surfaces, deducing it from > flash observations is extremely complex. > > > I have recently been trying to get an image of something other than the > ISS > > which might show some detail. Here is a link to an image of Envisat which > is ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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