A newbie to the list but here's my two bob's worth. I was thinking that multipoint observations might answer some of the questions about the "stealth" or "disappearing" behaviour of satellites like Lacrosse 5 (see the January archives under "light curve from satellite trail", or Bjorn's post copied below). If observers separated in longitude ie east/west could demonstrate simultanaeous dimming, that would support the "shadow" (or, if you prefer, "shield") theory; if an observer to the solar side could see the satellite while the shadow side observer saw dimming, that would support the "illuminated box" theory. Ideally, two or more observers of similar latitude but separated in longitude with the satellite passing between. If more northerly/southerly observers were also available, and light/dark/flare timings were different, deductions could be made about the satellite's shape or bright/dark sides. But not by me. I have enough trouble telling east from south... Michael -----Original Message----- From: John A. Dormer 2 [mailto:jad@texas.net] Sent: Friday, 1 February 2008 2:37 PM To: Seesat List Subject: Multipoint observations? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Scott Campbell and I both live in Texas, and in an unlikely physical arrangement. I'm 183km to the north of him and less than 100 meters west of his site. Is there any use for this arrangement for optical observation? I know for some types of radio work it'd be useful, as a very large synthetic aperture, but I don't know an inexpensive way to do that sort of thing at the moment. John --------older message from the archives Without knowing the exact layout, IMHO any satellite with a large antenna/panel monted on some boom outside the spacecraft can get into an attitude where we see the dark backside of the panel, and/or the panel shadows the satellite. Likewise, more or less box-shaped satellites can in some attitudes display only shadowed surfaces to the observers, and there may be no large protrusions that cast even secondary light onto these surfaces. Just my 5c /Björn ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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