('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is) Hello, I've just joined SeeSat-L. I am excited to have discovered this great resource. I am excited to be observing satellites! I became fascinated with geosats when observing M11 (the Wild Duck Cluster) with my 10" LX200-GPS at the Shingletown Star Party in Lassen Volcanic Park in northern California (40 degrees N latitude). My scope was tracking and I saw several geosats fly right through M11. 40 deg N is the perfect latitude for geosats to appear within M11. When an cluster of 3 geosats appeared, and I turned off the tracking motors, and the sats froze in view as M11 drifted off and the stars wheeled through. The three birds appeared to be sailing through fields of stars. It was endlessly fascinating to watch. I shared the view with many people at the star party. Everyone agreed it was a rare sight. The motion in the eyepiece is what makes these observations so exciting, compared to regular observations of M objects or galaxies. But I found this cluster of geosats by accident, and I didn't have the expertise to identify them. Today is Monday (Oct.11) and on Wednesday I am leaving on a 5-day astro camping trip and star party (Calstar2004 www201.pair.com/resource/calstar). I want to show some impressive clusters of geosats, and perhaps some flashers. I have just started sat observing and I am not familiar with the geosats over North America, so I don't know which ones are best to look at. I already downloaded the geosat TLE's from celestrak.com, and after I set up my scope at the star party, I can use Dr. T.S. Kelso's great Pascal program TRACKSTAR on my laptop to get the alt/az for a particular geosat, then I can tell my LX200 to GOTO the alt/az. I want your advice and recommendations for clusters of geosats over Northern California -- the ones that would be the best "eye candy". Is it possible to get 5 or more in the same field of view? That would be great. And flashers -- can you recommend some that would appear best for this weekend over California? Thanks, and I promise to post an observing report after the trip. With friendly regard from Dan Wright in Palo Alto, California ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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