[amsat-bb] Re: visual sighting of amateur satellites

[Hilton Meyer]

Hi Steve and Jim,
I well remember seeing Sputnik pass over several times and listening to 
the beep, beep , beep from the beacon, which from memory was on around 
20MHz. Two ham friends and I sat on my shack roof to observe the passes, 
here in  Napier, New Zealand.
73
Hilton ZL2MN






STeve Andre' wrote:
> On Wednesday 05 November 2008 21:59:59 Jim Danehy wrote:
>  
>> I have often seen the ISS in the evening sky. Its elevation is about 200
>> miles up. It is a fairly large object measuring more than 310 feet 
>> wide and
>> 225 feet long. It is about 150 feet in height. It is too big to fit 
>> into a
>> football field at 310' x 225'. It is quite the sight. A couple of 
>> weeks ago
>> after I worked Richard I saw the ISS by stepping outside. It was a great
>> dark morning and the ISS probably had the brightness on the solar 
>> scale of
>> 1. The sun is -27 and the brightest object for us on earth. The -27 
>> being
>> the bright side ; as you go to a more positive number the object is 
>> dimmer.
>>
>> AO 51 is about 25 cm on a side. That is about the size of a sack of
>> groceries. I do not know the exact height of AO 51 but I know it is 
>> higher
>> than the ISS (200 miles). I think AO 51 is about 250 to 300 miles up.
>>
>> I believe it is impossible to get a visual sighting of something that 
>> small
>> at that height. There are thousands of objects in orbit around our 
>> earth. A
>> bag of groceries at 300 miles up would take more seeing ability than a
>> human set of eyes can provide.
>>
>> Jim W9VNE
>>     
>
> I've often wondered about this--I have no direct knowledge on this, but
> what you say seems reasonable.
>
> Except that I'm pretty sure that US Air Force people saw Sputnik.  Not 
> sure
> how big it was compared to AO 51.
>
> The other factor here might be the sun--glinting in the sun, wouldn't 
> AO 51
> be far more visable ?
>
> --STeve Andre'
> wb8wsf  en82
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