Here's list of satellites that will pass over Greenville Tonight.
Here's list of satellites that will pass over Greenville Tonight.
July 22, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Calendar listing of Satellites viewable as they pass over Greenville for Wednesday night, July 16.
July 16, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
May 17, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
In between deer snorting at me I managed to break my old record with 20 satellites observed passing over Greenville.
Cosmos 1222
Intercosmos 24
Unidentified satellite (could see it flashing/spinning)
Cosmos 1674 Rocket
Cosmos 1980 Rocket
Cosmos 1346
TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite)
Unidentified (21:20)
USA 129 military satellite
Cosmos 1782 Rocket
Cosmos 1689 Rocket
Helios 1B Rocket
Unidentified (21:50)
Meteor-Priroda
Uosat 12 SS-18 rocket
Chunghua 1
MetOp-A
Unidentified
Resurs 1-4 Rocket
Cosmos 1603 Rocket4
May 13, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Here's a list of the satellites I managed to pick out Saturday night. All of these were exactly on schedule and seemed to be at the magnitude listed on the Heaven's Above website.
Cosmos 1812
Cosmos 2369
Cosmos 405 Rocket
Cosmos 921 Rocket
Seasat 1 Seasat was launched in 1978 and it's mission was quickly ended due to a failure of the electrical power system.
Cosmos 1689 Rocket
Helios 1B
I was lucky enough to be in the direct path of a passing Barred Owl that decided to take a break not 15 feet from where I was observing. It sat on a tree limb in complete silence and watched me for about 5 minutes.
April 26, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I was out watching the total lunar eclipse Wednesday night and, just before the Moon began to leave the Earth's shadow, I saw a bright meteor in the sky. I didn't know it then but, I saw this meteor at about the time the US shot a missile at the defunct spy satellite USA 193. I'll never know if that's what I saw (probably not) but it's something to think about anyway.
I actually had the passover times for USA 193 for several nights before the shoot-down and tried to get a glimpse of it but it was either too cloudy or not quite dark enough when the satellite was passing over Greenville.
February 21, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The sky was very bright tonight but I managed to pick out nine satellites while in the field. I didn't have my usual list but I wrote down some notes quickly and ran out to see what I could. Here's the list:
1 - unidentified (east to west below Pleiades) 6:17
2 - unidentified in same binocular filed and heading in the same direction.
1 - unidentified. West to east through Pegasus
ETS 7
Cosmos 1346
Cosmos 1939 rocket
1 - unidentified and very bright and also directly through Comet Holmes
Cosmos 1892 rocket
December 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Cosmos 1939 rocket
OAO 3 rocket
unidentified
unidentified
Lacrosse 5
Cosmos 2082 rocket
November 05, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I didn't have to try very hard this morning to catch a glimpse of the International Space Station passing over Greenville. It just so happened that the Space Shuttle Discovery separated from it a few moments earlier. I got an email from Bill All, President of the Carolina Skies Astronomy Club about the passover and decided it would be a great thing to view. At 05:53:53, I could just barely make out a slight separation between the two in the binoculars with the ISS and Discovery passing right through the zenith here in Greenville.
The Crescent Moon and Venus were also putting on a great show in the East and I could view both in the same binocular field.
November 05, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Without the usual list of satellites I carry with me to the field, I nevertheless saw two of them making their way across the sky tonight.
I picked up one of them through the binocs by chance when scanning the Milky Way through Cassiopeia. It was very dim and not included on the Heaven's Above website, which only lists 4.5 magnitude or dimmer satellites. So, it will remain unidentified.
Lacrosse Rocket, however, was very bright as I watched it pass through Cassiopeia and then just inside of the Great Square in Pegasus and beyond before it finally entered shadow.
There were two deer in the field tonight also. They gave me a warning to let me know they were there and then slowly made their way to the treeline.
October 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Here are a few facts:
October 1957 - Launch of Sputnik-1
October 1957 - U.S. authorizes the restart of the Explorer project to catch up
November 1957 - Launch of Sputnik-2
December 1957 - Failure during first launch of the Vanguard satellite
January 1958 - Successful launch of the Explorer-I satellite
October 04, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I didn't have a list with me tonight but I went to the field and observed these. I noted the time and the location in the sky, then looked them up afterwards.
Cosmos 1154 Rocket (20:21:45)
TRMM (20:25:30)
September 19, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 18, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Only one observed tonight.
Cosmos 2227 Rocket
September 17, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 13, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Nice night to pick them out of the sky. Total of 17 matches my record.
Cosmos 1939
Cosmos 1833
Delta 2 rocket
Cosmos 1340
Cosmos 975 rocket
Cosmos 1726
Grace-1 dimmer than 4.5 (North to South)
Grace-2 dimmer than 4.5 (North to South)
Unidentified dimmer than 4.5 (Pegasus to Delphinus)
Cosmos 1242
Cosmos 1689 Rocket
Cosmos 1606 Rocket
Cosmos 1733
Resurs 1-4
MetOp-A
Cosmos 2369
Lacrosse 5
September 07, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 04, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
A total of 13 satellites observed tonight.
Also observed 4 meteors, probably left over from the Perseid Meteor Shower.
HST
Lacrosse 3
Cosmos 1674
Unidentified from Jupiter to top of teapot
Cosmos 1666
Cosmos 1544
MetOp-A
GRACE-2
Meteor 2-5 Rocket
Envisat
Meteor 1-31 Rocket
Cosmos 2278 Rocket
Lacrosse 5
August 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Observed several fireballs during the Perseid Meteor Shower tonight.
Stayed out until 1:45 a.m.
Excellent sky conditions; better than last night, which was also excellent.
A record 17 satellites observed: The front page at right is an article I wrote about watching satellites as they pass over Greenville. I took the image while I was out tonight, observing the Perseid Meteor Shower in the field.
HST - Flared several magnitudes
Lacrosse 3
Cosmos 1666
Helios 1B
Unidentified - under Aquila, under Cygnus
Resurs 1-4 Rocket
Meteor 2-5 Rocket
Meteor 1-31 Rocket
MetOp-A
GRACE-2 - Timing early
GRACE-1 - Timing early
Cosmos 1536 Rocket
Cosmos 2278 Rocket
USA 129
Envisat
Cosmos 2263
Lacrosse 5
August 13, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Total 14
All were steady. A couple were dimmer than expected.
Last two were at about 5 a.m.
•Also saw about 7 Perseid meteors (one night before the peak). One very bright but not a fireball.
•Conditions: Very clear and great seeing. Binocs brought out the Milky Way very clearly.
Helios 1B Rocket
Resurs 1-4 Rocket
Cosmos 1666
Unidentified (at same time as Cosmos 1666, but slower)
Cosmos 921 Rocket
Lacrosse 3
Cosmos 1766
Meteor 1-31 Rocket
USA 129
Lacrosse 5
MetOp-A (dimmer than expected)
Unidentified (Cassiopeia, through Pegasus)
meteor 1-4 rocket - 4:56:22
unidentified - 4:58:00
August 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Observed one fireball very bright and moving fast from East to West
Satellites observed:
ATEX Taurus Rocket - steady
Unidentified - from Hercules toward Jupiter at 9:15 pm - about MAG. 3.0
Cosmos 1689 - steady
Abrixas Rocket - Constant flash
MetOp-A - steady
Meteor 1-31 Rocket - steady
Cosmos 1346 - steady
Envisat - steady
Cosmos 2278 Rocket - steady
August 09, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
No early Perseids observed tonight. It was too hazy and cloudy to see much of anything, anyway.
I managed to pick out five satellites in-betwen patches of clouds.
TRMM - not 1.7 Mag. / More like 4.o Mag.
Meteor 1-31 Rocket - steady
MetOp-A - Steady
Cosmos 1975 - steady
Unidentified - pretty bright from Arcturus toward Virgo
August 08, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Seeing poor tonight (Very Hazy) Total of 12 satellites.
• Also saw 1 fireball - Straight through Cassiopeia
* Cosmos 1689 steady
* Cosmos 1222 rocket steady
• Cosmos 2333 (slightly behind schedule)
• UARS
• TRMM
• Okean 1-7
• Cosmos 1500
• Unidentified (probably 3.5 - from Cygnus to Aquila @ 21:29:10)
• Iridium 39 - Polarid to Cygnus to Aquila and teapot (Flared to brightness of
Jupiter while crossing Cygnus for abouut 4-5 seconds)
• Meteor 1-31 Rocket
• Okean 1-7 Rocket
• GPS 2-05 Rocket1
August 05, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Total of 13 satellites tonight; a new record for me.
• Also saw 1 meteor
• Zi-Yaun -2
• Cosmos 2297 rocket
• Cosmos 2151
• Cosmos 2333
• unidentified
• Meteor 1-31 rocket
• TRMM - Tropical Rainfall Monitoring Mission
• Envisat
• Cosmos 1515
• Unidentified : Arcturus halfway to Virgo
• Unidentified : 10:28 Cygnus to Polaris (mag 3-3.5)
• Lacrosse 3 : Military reconnaissance satellite with Synthetic Aperture Radar
(SAR) payload
• Terra
August 04, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Total of 9 satellites observed from the field.
Moon started rising at around 11 p.m. so these satellites were seen in a mostly dark sky.
Good conditions tonight; low humidity. Got out to the field at around 9:14 p.m. Saw the first satellite (ISS) from the front yard).
Also saw three meteors.
• ISS
• TRMM 1.5 mag. Really bright
• Cosmos 1437
• Unidentified from Cygnus toward teapot @ 9:39 p.m.
• Meteor 1-31
• Unidentified north to South through cygnus toward teapot @ 9:47 p.m.
• MetOp-A - Flared up ( 10:00:15) for three seconds in Cygnus to almost as bright as Jupiter
• Unidentified at (10:00:10 p.m. )
• ISS
August 03, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
1) ISS from Hercules toward Polaris
2) Cosmos 1743 @ 9:14:21: Launch date: May 15, 1986
3) Cosmos 1441 @9:25 pm: Launch date: February 16, 1983
4) Cosmos 2297: Launch date: November 24, 1994
5) OAO-2 Rocket @9:38:12 pm: Launch date: December 7, 1968
6) Cosmos 2333 Rocket: Zenit booster second stage used to launch the Cosmos 2333
military signals intelligence satellite / launch Sept. 4. 1996
7) ISS (shot photo))
8) MetOp-A
9) Cosmos 1953: Launch date: June 14, 1988
10) Resurs 1-4 Rocket @ 11:08 pm: Launch date: July 10, 1998
• Also saw three meteors
August 02, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
August 01, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

