Flares from Geostationary satellites.

[MeteorWayne]

<p>In all my thousands of hours of meteor observing time, until 2 nights ago I had never witnessed an event like this.</p><p>I was looking near the Southern Taurid meteor radiant, close to the pentagon at the top of Cetus (for Northern Hemisphere watchers) and there was a star that did not belong there! I know that area of the sky quite well, and something was amiss. I assumed it was a satellite, but could not make sense of the slow motiom, only a degree in 4 or 5 minutes. This happened Sunday morning about 5 minutes before 3 AM,</p><p>After witnessing it again this morning at the same time and nearly the same place, the light bulb in my head went off. It was a flare from a geostationary satellite!! It was not as bright as the impressive Iridium flares which show motion&nbsp;in their LEO (Low earth orbit). It only reached a maximum brightness of about +3, equivalent to the bottom star of Orion's sword. It lasts 4 or 5 minutes. At first I&nbsp;thought the satellite was moving, now I realize that actually the satellite was stationary (they don't call it geostationary for nothing) and it was actually the stars behind that were moving; about 1 degree per 4 minutes! I have since tentatively identified it as AMC-18 (AMC is for Americom, a major commercial satellite provider). It's one of those sats that the networks use to transmit stuff from remote sites to the production site/studio. My friends at MSNBC, where I used to work, would be very impressed that I saw it by eye!!</p><p>You can learn something new every day!! I was not aware these events could be seen.</p><p>It was a UFO for one day, now it's an IFO </p><p>Wayne</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[Mee_n_Mac]

<p>Good sleuthing !&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>-----------------------------------------------------</p><p><font color="#ff0000">Ask not what your Forum Software can do do on you,</font></p><p><font color="#ff0000">Ask it to, please for the love of all that's Holy, <strong>STOP</strong> !</font></p> </div>

 

[Saiph]

<p> Nice Catch... I never thought about flashes from a Geo-sat, but I do suppose it's possible.</p><p>Never figured anybody would ever see it though....I mean, it's just nifty.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>That, and it was seen by someone able to put 2 & 2 together... </p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

<p>COOL!!!!</p><p>Yeah, like Saiph said -- that's just nifty.&nbsp; Totally nifty.&nbsp; MeteorWayne, you have truly demonstrated your superior satellite-watching-fu.&nbsp; ;-) </p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>COOL!!!!Yeah, like Saiph said -- that's just nifty.&nbsp; Totally nifty.&nbsp; MeteorWayne, you have truly demonstrated your superior satellite-watching-fu.&nbsp; ;-) <br />Posted by CalliArcale</DIV><br /><br />Yeah, I kind of do&nbsp;satellites for fun, since my primary attention is to meteor watching. As you can see from the summaries (not even the full reports) in the Orionid thread, it takes a lot of effort to collect accurate data. But especially on slow nights (meteor wise) I find the satellites a pleasant diversion, so make notes on any I see. There's a great variety, fast, slow, bright, dim, steady, varying brightness, flashing satellites, Iridium flares, and now this.</p><p>One reason I particularly noticed this one is that I was plotting all meteors that didn't belong to the major showers, so I need to have a good grip on the stars in fron of me in order to do that. A star that didn't belong there sort of upsets the apple cart. Hopefully, it will be clear enough tonight or tomorrow for me to get out there again around the same time, and I will set my watch alarm to begin examining that area much earlier in detail. Perhaps I can catch the start this time.</p><p>I will also be watching along the celestial equator more closely in the future to potentially see other ones. This was kind of easy because it was in a sparsely populated part of the sky. It would be much harder in Orion (where the line also goes through) since there are so many bright stars.</p><p>M&S W</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

<p>Finally this morning, I was still waiting for the clouds to clear so I went out <br />in front of my house with binoculars to spot it. I saw it in binoculars from <br />2:50 AM EDT to 3:00. It was visible with the unaided eye from about 2:53-2:57, <br />reaching a peak magnitude of about +3, midway between the brightness of alpha <br />and gamma Ceti. At the time of the flare, the sun is about 50 degrees below the <br />horizon, about 30 degrees off from being exactly opposite in the sky. I measured <br />roughly 11 minutes of drift in RA of the stars in 10 minutes.<br /></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Finally this morning, I was still waiting for the clouds to clear so I went out in front of my house with binoculars to spot it. I saw it in binoculars from 2:50 AM EDT to 3:00. It was visible with the unaided eye from about 2:53-2:57, reaching a peak magnitude of about +3, midway between the brightness of alpha and gamma Ceti. At the time of the flare, the sun is about 50 degrees below the horizon, about 30 degrees off from being exactly opposite in the sky. I measured roughly 11 minutes of drift in RA of the stars in 10 minutes. <br />Posted by MeteorWayne</DIV><br /><br />The morning of the 30th and 31st, it appears that the alignment is becoming less favorable. By the morning of the 31st, while with binoculars I was able to spot it, it got no brighetr than about mag +4.5.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>It wuz fun while it lasted!!</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>