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

[Graham Shirville]

Hi All,

Recent TV programmes have pointed out that most reports of Sputnik 1 
sightings were actually where people had seen the R7 final stage rocket 
body...which was obviously a much bigger object than the spacecraft!

But then, at the age of 9 I convinced myself that I heard its 20Mhz signals 
on the family radiogram:)

73

Graham
G3VZV
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Hilton Meyer" <hmeyer at clear.net.nz>
To: <AMSAT-BB at amsat.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 5:01 AM
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: visual sighting of amateur satellites


>
> 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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>
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