More flaring Geosats
jason.hatton@wanadoo.fr
Fri, 08 Oct 99 23:31:35 PDT
Hi Everyone,
I finally found the time & a clear sky to try observing some operational
geosats coming out of eclipse (shadow exit) this evening. Unfortunately,
the sky was rather hazy in the southeast where I have clearest view of the
geosynchronous "belt". Therefore, I decided to use my 6" telescope at x73
magnification which only gave a 0.7deg field of view. Nevertheless I did
manage to observe two geosync. satellites. I targetted Inmarsat 3-F1 (23839
/ 96-020A) first which became visible at 19:58UT 08-Oct-99, at a steady mag
+9. In the same field of view to the southeast Intelsat 804 (2511O /
97-083A) was also visible at a similar magnitude to Inmarsat 3-F1. Both
satellites appeared motionless, as stars swept across the field of view.
Over the next 20 minutes both satellites gradually faded in brightness down
to the limiting magnitude of the scope which was probably around mag +11
with the haze & light pollution.
I came across a nice animation (animated *gif files) of several
geostationary satellites entering & emerging eclipse taken by a driftscan
CCD camera. Some satellites can be clearly seen to flare at shadow exit.
http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/stardial/satellites.html
Best wishes & clear skies,
Jason
Jason P Hatton
06200 Nice
France
43.692N, 7.246E,30M
(43d41'29"N,7d14'47"E,30m)
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/1668/high-alt.htm
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