Hi folks,
I was asked this on our club's weekly net last week. I expect the answer is no, but thought I should check...
Will any of the ham satellites be affected by next month's solar eclipse across the USA? To be affected, the satellite's track (at some 18,000 mph) would need to intersect some portion of the eclipse (not necessarily the path of totality), which I understand is moving at some 1,500 mph. Given the speeds involved, that's unlikely. But we've got a number of satellites in sun synchronous orbits, so it's not impossible.
Any way to predict this?
If there are any, the telemetry from the event would be an awesome bit of data for students' analysis.
Greg KO6TH
p.s. I remember being at work (I think in the 1990's) during an eclipse. As I recall, the spot of totality was out in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Mexico. The real-time satellite weather background on my Unix workstation looked like someone had burned a hole in it with a cigarette.