Space Station Spotting

[Derek Chevalier]

El stovey said:

Good pass of the starlink satellites at 8:43 in the south tonight. 38 satellites passing overhead in a line in close formation.

https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/

Should look pretty impressive.

Came over around the same time as the ISS. Moon was pretty bright tonight but still an impressive sight.

[anonymous-user]

Great as the satellites are, to me there’s something a bit more awesome about the iss (or in the past the shuttle or Mir etc) because you know there’s people in it.

[Zirconia]

Caught one south to north as well.

[Hub]

Just been watching them, they just kept on coming! Impressive.

The ISS is a good place to be at the moment. Whoever is up there will probably come back down to find Planet of the Apes!

[Zirconia]

Sommit not right, my astronomy program is listing my South North spot as CZ-2B-R/B

Had to look it up, Chinese. Defo saw it, listing has it wrong methinks.

[sospan]

Took this the other night. Bright object is the moon.

[silverthorn2151]

El stovey said:

Good pass of the starlink satellites at 8:43 in the south tonight. 38 satellites passing overhead in a line in close formation.

https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/

Should look pretty impressive.

I caught them last night, for the first time. Very faint and a relatively short arc when visible. Are they ever reasonably bright?

[Zirconia]

silverthorn2151 said:

I caught them last night, for the first time. Very faint and a relatively short arc when visible. Are they ever reasonably bright?

Depends on what they have to reflect the sun, timing, your position and theirs etc. Larger object with more area of thermal control and solar panels are better at it. Lack of moon will increase a dim objects chance.

They were very observable during the pass a short while ago When almost the same trajectory as the station, less of the moon, but still dim.

[Hub]

Using the link above there is a more direct pass over England about 9:15 tonight - if the sky is clear! Last night they were over Scottish Highlands. Not sure how bright the pass will be though.

Edited by Hub on Tuesday 7th April 07:59

[Eric Mc]

There will be a full moon tonight. In fact, it should be a very bright full moon as the full moon coincides with its closest approach to earth this month - what is called a Super Moon.

[silverthorn2151]

Zirconia said:

silverthorn2151 said:

I caught them last night, for the first time. Very faint and a relatively short arc when visible. Are they ever reasonably bright?

Depends on what they have to reflect the sun, timing, your position and theirs etc. Larger object with more area of thermal control and solar panels are better at it. Lack of moon will increase a dim objects chance.

They were very observable during the pass a short while ago When almost the same trajectory as the station, less of the moon, but still dim.

Oh I appreciate all that. Was more asking about personal experiences of seeing them.

[Zirconia]

silverthorn2151 said:

Oh I appreciate all that. Was more asking about personal experiences of seeing them.

Oops. Sorry.

I had to take the camera from iso 160 to 800 then some more processing to get a good trail. Moon was a crescent at that time but very observable.

I went out last night and didn't need the torch to check the hedgehog feeding stations and camera.

[Derek Chevalier]

silverthorn2151 said:

El stovey said:

Good pass of the starlink satellites at 8:43 in the south tonight. 38 satellites passing overhead in a line in close formation.

https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/

Should look pretty impressive.

I caught them last night, for the first time. Very faint and a relatively short arc when visible. Are they ever reasonably bright?

They seemed almost as bright as the ISS a week or so ago.

[AshVX220]

silverthorn2151 said:

Zirconia said:

silverthorn2151 said:

I caught them last night, for the first time. Very faint and a relatively short arc when visible. Are they ever reasonably bright?

Depends on what they have to reflect the sun, timing, your position and theirs etc. Larger object with more area of thermal control and solar panels are better at it. Lack of moon will increase a dim objects chance.

They were very observable during the pass a short while ago When almost the same trajectory as the station, less of the moon, but still dim.

Oh I appreciate all that. Was more asking about personal experiences of seeing them.

I saw the Starlink satellites really brightly while on holiday about 3 weeks ago, near the equator, with no light pollution at about 5:20 AM.

They are also supposed to pass over us (south coast is where my App has me obviously) at 4:38 AM tomorrow and is menat to be bright again, I've set my alarm to get up and watch.

[dickymint]

AshVX220 said:

silverthorn2151 said:

Zirconia said:

silverthorn2151 said:

I caught them last night, for the first time. Very faint and a relatively short arc when visible. Are they ever reasonably bright?

Depends on what they have to reflect the sun, timing, your position and theirs etc. Larger object with more area of thermal control and solar panels are better at it. Lack of moon will increase a dim objects chance.

They were very observable during the pass a short while ago When almost the same trajectory as the station, less of the moon, but still dim.

Oh I appreciate all that. Was more asking about personal experiences of seeing them.

I saw the Starlink satellites really brightly while on holiday about 3 weeks ago, near the equator, with no light pollution at about 5:20 AM.

They are also supposed to pass over us (south coast is where my App has me obviously) at 4:38 AM tomorrow and is menat to be bright again, I've set my alarm to get up and watch.

It’s a “Super Moon” tonight too.

[Beati Dogu]

The Lyrid meteor shower should be here this week. The peak will be on Wednesday 22nd apparently. The weather forecast looks a bit better this week, so hopefully we’ll have clear skies.

[Beati Dogu]

I just managed to watch the ISS' nice bright pass over the UK. Really obvious, even with a few clouds around.

There's loads more bright passes coming up:

https://www.meteorwatch.org/iss-international-spac...

[dickymint]

Beati Dogu said:

I just managed to watch the ISS' nice bright pass over the UK. Really obvious, even with a few clouds around.

There's loads more bright passes coming up:

https://www.meteorwatch.org/iss-international-spac...

There's a cracker coming up in about half an hour almost overhead and very bright

[Beati Dogu]

dickymint said:

There's a cracker coming up in about half an hour almost overhead and very bright

Yes, got it. The sky had cleared from earlier and the ISS seemed to fly right overhead very brightly.

I gave them a wave.

[dickymint]

Beati Dogu said:

dickymint said:

There's a cracker coming up in about half an hour almost overhead and very bright

Yes, got it. The sky had cleared from earlier and the ISS seemed to fly right overhead very brightly.

I gave them a wave.

That was about as good as it gets