I don't think I will be able to see this one through the bright and murky skies of Rome, but I may give it a go. Sky And Telescope Magazine has a nice write up that tells you when and where to look. The best night for seeing this one are coming up soon:http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/35992534.html
Howdy Bill --
ReplyDeleteIn the aftermath of the collision between Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251, I decided to subscribe myself to the SEESAT-L list, a group of dedicated amateurs who make observations of artificial satellites. They are a bunch of guys who display very knack-ish (knack-ered?) behavior. One of them posted a link to this movie of Comet Lulin:
Movie of Comet Lulin, with satellites
The camera is currently tracking the stars, so you can clearly see the motion of the comet against the background stars. At the beginnin, you can see a streak in the upper left. This is apparently a geostationary satellite.
Back in 2003, a friend of mine had sent me a couple of astrophotographs of the Orion Nebula that he had taken, which showed some streaks:
My previous posting of unidentified space objects.
I hypothesized that it was a geostationary satellite (I measured the path length, and determined the rough orbital velocity, which was appropriate for a geostationary bird, and it would have been very near the orbital plane of the equator) and indeed one of the seesat members identified it as a Canadian geostationary satellite, Anik F1.
Just thought you mind find this interesting.
73, Mark K6HX