I suspect the world would be better if that percentage were even greater.
Strange Space Objects
My friend Phil sent me these pictures he took using a Canon D60 through a small wide angle telescope. He sent me these pictures to ask what the streaks are. My best guess is a geosynchronous satellite. To verify this, I was thinking of first of all plotting the direction of the trail. Assuming they are in order, the satellite should track almost exactly east west. A little head scratching math should indicate its orbital velocity (assuming a circular orbit).
Anyway, from his letter to me…
I was shooting some wide-field photos of Orion’s belt
about 7:45 tonight and four or five of them show this
strange streak. It seems like it’s moving awfully slow
for a satellite but I can’t imagine what else it could
be.Please see the two attached full rez crops from the
(much larger) original jpegs taken with a Canon D60,
through my Celestron Rich Field 80 piggy-backed on my C8.
These are totally unenhanced at the full pixel rez of
the full frames. As I said, the duration of the streaks
is 30 sec.Satellite? Asteroid? Whaddaya think?
Comment from Ed Cannon
Time 2/15/2003 at 2:14 pm
The best candidate appears to be Anik F1
(NORAD #26624, ID 00-076A). From 7:40-49
PST (UTC/GMT -8.0) on the evening of Feb. 2,
its RA&Dec (2000) positions (from San Rafael,
CA) were about RA 5:30.4 to 5:39.4, Dec. -6.0.
Anik F1 has very big solar panels.
The second best candidate seems to be MSat 1
(23846, 96-022A). It was a little farther
east, and during 7:40-45 its positions were
about RA 5:34.0 to 5:39.0, Dec. -6.0 (but a
tiny bit farther north than Anik F1). I
doubt that it is as bright an object as Anik
F1, which I’ve seen around equinoxes
(“flaring geosynch season”) with my 10×50
binoculars.
Ed Cannon – Austin, Texas