Here is a question to those of you who know about sophisticated observation gear. The just successfully launched Japanese spacecraft SELENE is supposed to go into a 100 km polar orbit around the Moon. It will release two smaller satellites which go into a 100 x 800 km and a 100 x 2400 km orbit around the Moon. Would there be any chance to come up with a visual observation of this? My guess that they would be something like mag 18 or so. This seems to be impossible to see (or record with suitable equipment) next to the bright Moon. There might be the chance of a solar panel flare but this would happen at Full Moon when the Moon's glare is particularly bright. Maybe if one could zoom in on the lunar north or south pole with high magnification there might be a chance? Gerhard HOLTKAMP Darmstadt, Germany ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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