Ben C. wrote: > > While setting up for tonight's lunar eclipse I happened to be at the > eyepiece when I saw a small dark object passing across the moon. I had been > noticing a few birds passing before the moon during this time but this > object was a black dot and it glided steadily along a straight path across > the face of the moon. > > Could this have been an earth satellite? It could have been. There have been a number of observations of satellites, particularly the ISS, crossing the moon including some pretty impressive images of the ISS - showing modules, solar panels, docked soyuz, etc. If a satellite is close enough to the observer to be seen against the moon its angular position will be changing very quickly. If an object takes more than about a second or so to cross the moon it's probably not a satellite. > Does anyone know how to determine > if there were any candidates among earth satellites for this transit? Ask in the SeeSat-L mailing list. I've copied this message to that list. http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html > The > time for this event was approximately 730 pm Eastern Time, (sorry, I didn't > have accurate time available so I hope satellite transits of the moon are > rare enough for this approximate time to be of use.) > > ~Ben C. > Detroit > > ========================================================= > To UNSUBSCRIBE, or for general information on the Shallow > Sky list, see: http://www.shallowsky.com/shallow-sky.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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