COAA
Centro de
Observação Astronómica no Algarve
Poio, 8500
Portimão, Portugal
Tel: + 351 282
471180 Fax: + 351 282 471516 e-mail: bmes@coaa.co.uk
Observing site:
COAA, Poio, Portimao, Portugal
Lat 37 11 24N
Long 008 36 00W
A bright object (mag between +1 and +2) which initially appeared to be stationary was found to be moving at approx 20 arc minutes per minute. This suggests a very high orbit but the brightness of the satellite suggests a large, low orbit object.
There are two photographs available here.
Photo 1
Photo 2
Caution: both photographs are large files.
Both photographs are wide angle shots showing the constellation of Orion on the right side with Sirius in the lower left. The satellite trail is at upper left.
If you right click and "Save target as.." on the above links, you will be able save the JPG and then look at the properties window for the exact details.
Photo 1 is a 76 second exposure taken at 2008-03-05 at 21:28 UTC (regrettably time only to the nearest minute).
Photo 2 is a 55 second exposure taken at 2008-03-05 at 21:30 UTC (ditto)
NOTE ADDED LATER
Due to a camera clock error, the above times are 20 fast and so the corrected (approx) times are 21:08 and 21:10.
Any suggestions as to indentification would be most welcome.
Bev
bmes@coaa.co.uk