Re: {SHALLOW} Satellite transit of the moon tonight?

From: Ed Davies (edavies@nildram.co.uk)
Date: Thu Oct 28 2004 - 05:04:37 EDT

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    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
    > 
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