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

[Luc Leblanc]

On 6 Nov 2008 at 18:01, Hilton Meyer wrote:

> 
> 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
> 
> 
> 

> >> 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 dust off STSPLUS and i remember this program give the pass where the satellite is visible. It works very well with ISS and the shuttle 
The magnitute of AO-51 is the key here try STSPLUS	il will give you the time and the orbits where AO-51 is visible. Again the V visible 
mean the sun is illuminating the satellite. but this does not confirm that the satellite is really visible. . It works for ISS but  i think 
not for AO-51. At least the you will not have to watch each and every pass to get the right one.

 

"-"


Luc Leblanc VE2DWE
Skype VE2DWE
www.qsl.net/ve2dwe
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