Hi Everyone, Several SeeSat-L observers and analysts have contributed to two recent research papers. The first article, https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.05820, is about the BlueBird satellites. Those spacecraft comprise the brightest constellation and often reach magnitude zero. The operator, AST SpaceMobile, will soon launch even larger satellites that will be brighter still. The Qianfan paper, https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.07194, finds that several of these spacecraft vary in brightness on short timescales. This suggests that the Chinese-made satellites have failed and are tumbling. We welcome observations from new observers. This paper explains how to determine visual magnitudes, https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.07834. Figure 2 indicates the preferred format for reporting. However, I’ll try to use observations in any format that includes the NORAD number, date/time and magnitude, along with the observer’s coordinates. Participants who make substantial contributions will be co-authors on research papers. Best regards, Tony Mallama _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list https://lists.seesatmail.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-lReceived on Tue May 20 2025 - 08:57:41 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Tue May 20 2025 - 15:57:41 UTC