Questions tagged [artificial-satellite]
Questions about man-made objects orbiting astronomical objects.
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Equation for calculating boolean answer to "is this Earth satellite in eclipse"
I have found plenty of math for determining duration of satellite eclipse, but I am having trouble finding an equation that produces a simple boolean answer to the question "Is this Earth ...
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If 42000 Starlink satellites interfere with telescope observations from Earth would someone observing from another solar system detect them too?
SpaceX's Starlink constellation could place up to 42000 satellites around the Earth. Would aliens with their own telescopes notice them? They would be about 150 km apart and could reflect light of ...
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What effects you have to have in mind during LEO satellites observations?
I am attempting to calibrate my setup for conducting survey-like satellite observations similar. The idea is that I have a wide-field camera that takes images at 5FPS. The camera is equipped with a ...
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Do high power radar astronomers try to avoid beaming power at (at least some) artificial satellites as they pass overhead?
This answer to "Next Generation Arecibo Telescope (NGAT)... would combine a 314-metre-wide platform with a swarm of 9-metre dishes on top" What would that look like? links to an interesting ...
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How do I calculate the positions of an artificial satellite for a decade?
We are trying to solve what I think should be a simple question: suppose there is a satellite that is launched into a certain orbit, where will it be as a function of time? Let's say we know that it ...
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How to find the numerical positions of objects in the sky?
How do star locator applications such as SkyGuide, SkySafari and Stellarium get the current and future positions of
moons, planets, stars and artificial satellites in the sky?
Is there a public ...
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Is it possible to have satellites (natural or not) orbit the same celestial object in different directions ? (clockwise, counterclockwise)
Is it possible to have satellites (natural or not) orbit the same celestial object in different directions, or is the orbital direction dependent on the celestial object's spin?
Also, is the direction ...
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What would the night sky look like after 200 years?
It is research for a book I am writing. The year is 2200. Assume the volume of items in orbit has increased dramatically from today’s numbers. We go to war and blowup all the satellites. Four hundred ...
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Did this satellite streak past the Hubble Space Telescope so close that it was out of focus? If so, how close was it?
The new Nature Astronomy paper The impact of satellite trails on Hubble Space Telescope observations (Kruk et al. 2023) describes an AI-based object classification method used to find satellite trails ...
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Was the recent blue spiral over Hawaii really a SpaceX rocket dumping fuel?
Is the observed phenomenon really consistent with a SpaceX rocket dumping fuel or decelerating or something? I'm skeptical. There are several things to discuss.
The speed of the blue spiral is much ...
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What was the GPS time at J2000 epoch?
The simple version of the question is: what was the GPS time expressed in week number (pure number) and time of week (SI seconds) at the J2000 epoch? I am asking because my hand calculations differ ...
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What bright satellite did I see pass near the Tiangong space station on the morning of 2/15?
What bright satellite or other spacecraft did I see pass near the Tiangong space station on the morning of 2/15?
(I've ruled out the International Space Station, as that was in view a few minutes ...
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would the Solar Gravitational Lens Mission be looking at a specific exoplanet?
Quoting https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2020_Phase_I_Phase_II/Direct_Multipixel_Imaging_and_Spectroscopy_of_an_Exoplanet/, the proposed Solar Gravitational Lens Mission would "...
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Where to get MOST data?
Where to get MOST data (light curves), please? Does a database or a list of objects that were exist? I mean MOST spacecraft.
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Will the lunar gateway be visible for ground based (amateur) telescopes?
Due to its low apparent magnitude and large apparent diameter, astrophotographers have managed to capture the ISS not only during solar and moon transits, but even come so far as to image individual ...
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What could be an explanation for a satellite-like moving light in the night sky that dims over time
Last night I saw a bright light moving across the sky. It was probably as bright (or even brighter) than some of the brightest visible stars like Vega and moving quite slowly (so no shooting star) at ...
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How can I replicate AstroImageJ's pixel to RA/Dec algorithm in my own code?
EDIT: solved, thanks to Eric Jensen's suggestion (in a comment on his answer) that I include the correction to my right ascension value as a function of my declination. All other comments were helpful ...
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What's the brightest magnitude that the ISS can appear from Earth's surface?
Heavens-above indicates that this evening, it will fly almost over my head (79°) with a sizzling magnitude of -3.9. What is the maximum brightness it can have?
Is there a formula to calculate its ...
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Slow moving pulsing light [closed]
I was looking at the stars as it was clear tonight. I saw a slow moving and slow pulsing star like object. It moved across the sky turning on and off a ‘light’ only being visible when lit and it was ...
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How to calculate the minimum number of satellites needed to maintain constant link between themselves? [closed]
Suppose we want to build a number of space stations, all orbiting Earth at the same altitude, equally distanced from one another, and with the same inclination. How many of those stations are needed ...
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Did I see a satellite (or space station)? [duplicate]
In the UK (south east) - when outside this evening at about 19:10 UTC (22nd Feb 2022), looking due south, with Orion directly above me.
There are two bright stars vertical to each other, just to the ...
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I believe I saw a UFO, what else could it be? [closed]
When looking at the night sky some time ago I noticed a white dot. The amount of light coming from or being bounced on that object made it the same size of a average star. But differently from a star, ...
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Calculation of time delay in NASA's STEREO project
I'm trying to solve this task:
Astronomers recently managed to get an image of the entire surface of the Sun for the first time. This became possible thanks to the STEREO project.
In 2006, two ...
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Mars satellite data similar to Sentinel-2?
For Earth, there is lot of free satellite data easily available. For example, I can download the Sentinel-2 optical images freely from https://scihub.copernicus.eu/. What would be the closest thing ...
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What is k2, how does it relate to Io's volcanism and how can Juno constrain its value?
This answer to Does Juno's UVS have any chance to spot Europa plumes? links to Juno OPAG REPORT by Scott Bolton, OPAG, September 2020. The slides detail past and future Juno flybys of Jupiter and some ...
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Why can't observatories just stop capturing for a few seconds when Starlink satellites pass though their field of view?
Given that the positions and trajectories of the Starlink satellites are public, why can't the telescopes just ignore the photons they receive when the satellites pass through the field of view?
It ...
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Can a satellite stay in one place but not above equator? [closed]
I know that there are geostationary satellites that are always seen in one place in the sky and that they all are located in the equatorial area. I wonder if it's possible for a satellite to "...
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Comparing Observing Techniques to Quantify the Effects of Starlink Satellites on Astronomical Observations
To take pictures of satellites I think I could use these methods listed below (are there more?)
Method 1
The satellites are tracked and their positions predicted. By utilising software tools and code ...
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How exactly will Trailblazer (the precursor to SatHub) help Astronomers plan their optical observations? Will it be open to the public?
Space News' Astronomers back technical efforts to reduce impacts of satellite megaconstellations while seeking regulatory solutions
says:
At the conclusion of the weeklong SATCON2 workshop July 16, ...
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Can the transit of satellite in front of Sun be visible in 10-inch telescope?
I have 10 inch Sky-Watcher telescope and I would like to know if a satellite passing in front of Sun can be visible. Suppose that satellite's angular diameter is 1˝. Yes, I know the formula $\theta=\...
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Would a future Dyson sphere or swarm around our Sun actually be beneficial to people on Earth? [closed]
A Dyson sphere or swarm's function is to harvests most of a star's energy, correct?
However, a future Dyson sphere around our Sun would also block the Sun's rays from reaching Earth. Wouldn't it ...
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Will Starlink deface the night sky?
There is some discussion (and there are some questions on this site) about the impact of Starlink on observational astronomy. I am not an astronomer, but I am amazed by the beauty an immensity of the ...
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stellarium software: selective artificial satellite display
The Stellarium satellite plugin by default shows all the artificial satellites' orbits around Earth. I’d like to be able to view only certain satellites so that the view is not cluttered with every ...
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Calculate Global (ECEF) coordinates of Observer
I have the local coordinates of satellite and global coordinates of satellites. I want to calculate the observer position in global (ECEF) system.
How can I do this?
I also explain this question with ...
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Can New Horizons be used to measure the distance to Betelgeuse (despite its fickle photocenter)?
The New Horizons spacecraft is almost 50 AU from Earth and near-simultaneous images taken by its telescope and one on Earth have demonstrated parallax without relying on the movement of Earth in it's ...
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Easy interactive visualization of orbital elements
To get a grip on orbital elements, I'd like to play with a ready interactive visualization like in Universe Sandbox. E.g. drag the inclination slider and see immediately what happens to the satellite ...
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Why is the height of a satellite greater than the apogee of its orbit?
I read in the German Wikipedia for the Indian Technology Experiment Satellite, that the apogee (Apogäumshöhe) is 567 km, while the height of the orbit (Bahnhöhe) is 572 km. I had always thought that ...
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SpaceX's Starlink Megaconstellation and its Effect on Earth-Based Astronomy [duplicate]
SpaceX's Starlink project is already greatly impeding scientists ability to make good Earth-based observations. With the planned launch of 12,000 satellites total, the future is uncertain.
Is there ...
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Apparent magnitude of a spherical body with specular, rather than diffuse reflectivity? How bright were Sputnik 1 and Vanguard 2?
How bright are geostationary satellites due to reflected sunlight? and Did Sputnik 1 tell us more than “beep”? What science was improved by information gained from its orbiting the Earth? now have me ...
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How bright are geostationary satellites due to reflected sunlight?
We are all familiar with seeing low-Earth orbit satellites scooting across the sky in a couple of minutes. Many of them are bright and readily identifiable with the naked eye. Geostationary satellites ...
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How do satellites impede current telescopes?
As we send up more and more satellites, it stands to reason that our view of the universe becomes more and more obscured. I would certainly expect for example that a large telescope such as the LSST ...
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What object did I see in the sky? [duplicate]
Tonight, while looking at the night sky, I saw a moving object which I cannot assign to any cosmic or man-made object known to me.
The object looked like a star, and hadn't it been moving, it would ...
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Events I cannot explain
In the last few days I experienced two events I cannot explain. I watch the sky since I was a child so I'm aware of most events like satellites, ISS, Iridium flares, etc...
First event
It was about 22:...
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Can any satellite train still be seen?
I "missed the train" on the Starlink satellites last year, and now it looks like they've separated, and the conservative voices convinced Space X to darken new ones with visors or paint.
Is ...
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How can the Sun block an X-ray telescope from observing a QPO galaxy "for several years"?
Phys.org's Black hole's heart still beating says:
X-ray satellite observations spotted the repeated beat after its signal had been blocked by our Sun for a number of years.
and links to the Open ...
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Lights moving fast and in a straight line coming from the northwest headed southeast tonight at 9:15CST [duplicate]
What is going on tonight?
Bright lights in the same high orbit moving very fast across the night sky from Northwest heading southeast...then 10 minutes later same line but far fewer almost in ...
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Any active solar X-ray imager in orbit?
NOAA GOES-14 & 15 went very recently in storage mode. With those also went the solar X-ray imagers (SXI), as GOES-16 & 17 do not have such instruments on board. Hence, my question:
Are there ...
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Planetary phase angle of Hohmann transfer
This is Question 23 from USAAAO First Round 2015. The answer is D. Can someone show how to get the answer?
Calculate the planetary phase angle (counterclockwise from Earth, a =
1.0 AU) that a probe ...
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Visible satellites real time position API
I'm trying to obtain the azimuth and elevation of all (or at least the majority) visible artificial satellites from a given latitude and longitude. Is there a quite stable API that does that for free? ...
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Help identify a bright and round object photographed through a telescope
It was a brightest object in the sky. Attached is the picture taken on 25th January around 6pm in Riga / Latvia, towards the south direction:
Apologies for a quality of the picture, the telescope was ...
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