There is a video taken by an observer in New Zealand showing Shenzhou-12 and Tianhe in close proximity before docking three days ago. I estimate the actual separation distance during the video is about 3.3 km. It's captioned as a video of the "docking", but of course ground observers would not directly see that, and I imagine this is 60-90 minutes before the final docking. Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myd_4-hoRPI I think I have this fairly well figured out. The bright star on the right near the start of the video is Sirius. The spacecraft pair crosses very nearly over beta CMa (Mirzam) at about 06:37:43 UT on 17 June 2021. Near the end of the video (which would be just before shadow entry), the pair crosses theta Chamaeleontis (about 06:40:05 UT). My best estimate for the latitude of the observer is 37° 48' S. The apparent path is not particularly sensitive to longitude, since the ground track is nearly east-west at this time, but my guess is 176° 09' E. Estimated error bars: +/-2' on latitude, and +/-10' longitude. Is this close? Anyone know the videographer? Maybe following Seesat-L? During the video another bright satellite appears. It crosses the track (visually!) just ahead of the Tianhe Shenzhou pair about 30 seconds from the end of the video. It's headed generally northbound and passes about a degree from the bright open star cluster NGC 2516 as it goes out of frame. Can anyone identify it? I tried, but could not. Frank Reed Clockwork Mapping / ReedNavigation.com Conanicut Island USA _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-lReceived on Sun Jun 20 2021 - 18:04:42 UTC
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