Meteorite shower tonite
- Thread starter jrassy
- Start date
Looked around with my daughter for a couple hour but didn't see a damn thing, we did manage to survive for a couple hours without drinking anything.
Cheers.
Cheers.
I was out for a while... counted about 6 satellites... wasn’t drinkin' rather chewin' some grizzly... turn to spit and caught from the corner of my eye one possible streak. I say possible cause it could have just been a reflection off my glasses. I called it a bust and went back inside after 90 minutes.
Meteor parties are always more fun when you've got spy satellites mingling in. I just checked at Heavens Above and none of the "big hitters" (ISS or spy satellites) will be visible in North America during the meteor shower.
The "Misty" stealth satellite (USA 144) would be visible in the western US about 22:35 EDT (about five minutes after this post, which is before the shower), except it's IN-visible. That's what makes it a stealth satellite.
The "Misty" stealth satellite (USA 144) would be visible in the western US about 22:35 EDT (about five minutes after this post, which is before the shower), except it's IN-visible. That's what makes it a stealth satellite.
Last night the wife and I took the 2 grand sons out to watch for a while. We almost didn't find a place with no streetlights. 45 minutes later we decided to turn it in. We saw 1 in that time. The oldest boy wanted to drive home and the youngest wanted to go to sleep. Oh well...
The peak was suppose to be around 2-4am this morning, SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids has a pic and states is was far from the predicted storm just 5-10 per hour... there is a 1.4km rock were passing by but it is a long way away. I wonder what its B.C. is, and hoist some Spin D for a toast.
BTW, I wasn't kidding about watching the spy satellites.
In the late 1970s, an amateur astronomer figured a way to use a satellite's changing celestial coordinates to calculate its future locations. He got a bunch of fellow astronomy geeks all over the world interested and now they track everything in the sky that's big enough to see. And except for the space junk, they put it all in a searchable database online. Much to the chagrin of the the boys at No Such Agency.
Even if a satellite gets an altitude adjustment or a redirection, within a few orbits the satellite geeks have noted the change and adjusted their online data. Spy satellites, if you happen to spot one with the naked eye, are easy to pick out because they're one of the few objects that make polar orbits (N->S or S->N). Most everything else either flies in an equatorial orbit or is in geosync.
So if you want to spy on what's spying on you, first you have to find that satellite's mission number. If you're interested in a Rooskie spy satellite, for instance, go to Wikipedia for a list of Kosmos mission numbers. If it's Kosmos 2480, you go to Heavens Above, select "Satellite database" and enter the mission number. Input your lat-long and it even will tell you when the given satellite will be in sight of your location, weather permitting, along with the direction, elevation and brightness to help pick it out of the clutter.
And when you see one, don't forget to wave!
In the late 1970s, an amateur astronomer figured a way to use a satellite's changing celestial coordinates to calculate its future locations. He got a bunch of fellow astronomy geeks all over the world interested and now they track everything in the sky that's big enough to see. And except for the space junk, they put it all in a searchable database online. Much to the chagrin of the the boys at No Such Agency.
Even if a satellite gets an altitude adjustment or a redirection, within a few orbits the satellite geeks have noted the change and adjusted their online data. Spy satellites, if you happen to spot one with the naked eye, are easy to pick out because they're one of the few objects that make polar orbits (N->S or S->N). Most everything else either flies in an equatorial orbit or is in geosync.
So if you want to spy on what's spying on you, first you have to find that satellite's mission number. If you're interested in a Rooskie spy satellite, for instance, go to Wikipedia for a list of Kosmos mission numbers. If it's Kosmos 2480, you go to Heavens Above, select "Satellite database" and enter the mission number. Input your lat-long and it even will tell you when the given satellite will be in sight of your location, weather permitting, along with the direction, elevation and brightness to help pick it out of the clutter.
And when you see one, don't forget to wave!
