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" [email protected] To: [email protected] 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
- 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 _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
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