FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Naked-eye Geosynchronous Satellite

[Tom Polakis <tpolakis@xxxxxxx>]

Last night, the conditions were about as good as they get at the Arizona City 
site.  Nice to see another good turnout for the All-Arizona Star Party.

Just a couple days ago, Brian Skiff mentioned to me that he saw a naked-eye 
star that was out of place in Cetus.  He recognized it as a geosynchronous 
satellite as soon as he noticed that it was in the declination band (roughly -5 
degrees).  At midnight last night I was thinking about his observation, and 
looked up into Cetus to see an extra 3rd-magnitude star near Zeta Ceti.  The 
view through the scope revealed another stationary satellite, trailing it by a 
few arcminutes.  Since the telescope field at the site is so expansive, I only 
told Rick Rotramel and Paul Lind, who were nearby.

Last year at this time, we saw a naked-eye geostationary satellite from Steve 
and Rosie Dodder's place on October 14.  They flare when they are near 
opposition from the sun, but out of the earth's shadow, which is 17 degrees in 
diameter.

http://www.freelists.org/archives/az-observing/10-2006/msg00039.html
http://www.freelists.org/archives/az-observing/10-2006/msg00042.html

This subject is covered in some detail by Jeff Umberger on the SeeSat-L mailing 
list.

http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Sep-2006/0029.html

His map for 33N indicates that we are within a couple days of the end of the 
window for flaring geosynchronous satellites.

Tom
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