Autumn
is here, and it's a wonderful time for stargazing. Find
out what's up from Spaceweather
PHONE.
NEW
SUNSPOT:
A new sunspot is emerging over the sun's eastern limb--images:
#1, #2.
Last week, while the 'spot was on the sun's farside, it
unleashed some ferocious
explosions. Will it do so again? Stay
tuned.
NOT
A LEONID:
On Nov. 19th, the night of the Leonid meteor shower, Jim
Fakatselis of Huntington, NY, pointed his telescope
at the Orion Nebula (M42). Suddenly, a bright light moved
through the field of view:
An
18-minute movie of the Orion Nebula: full
size.
"The
object's path leads to the constellation Leo," says
Fakatselis. But was it a
Leonid? "It couldn't be. It was too slow."
Each streak in the image, above, represents two minutes
of motion. A Leonid would've been in and out in milliseconds.
Answer:
The intruder was a geosynchronous
satellite.
Geosynchronous
satellites orbit twenty-two thousand miles above Earth's
surface, always keeping station above a single point on
the ground. They move very slowly among the stars, making
them easy to distinguish from zipping meteors.
The
Orion Nebula is a sort of "superhighway" for
these satellites. The declination of the nebula is -5.5
degrees, about the same as the declination of a typical
geosynchronous satellite seen from mid-Northern latitudes.
Astrophotographers taking aim at the nebula often notice
satellites drifting by. Examples: #1,
#2, #3
Fun
trick: When you spot a geosynchronous satellite
gliding through the eyepiece of your
telescope, disengage the telescope's clock drive.
This will stop the satellite dead in its tracks, while
the stars will suddenly begin to move. Think about it....
MEANWHILE
IN ENGLAND:
"I spent most of the night of Nov. 19th enthralled,
watching the build up to the Leonids maximum," says
Will Gater of Devon,
UK. "Yet when I turned around and saw Orion rising,
I couldn't resist turning my 8-inch telescope (an LX200R)
toward M42." During a break between geosynchronous
satellites, he took this spectacular picture:
"A
nice momento to a great night!" says Gater.
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