wxsatuser

Heavens above gives altitude as approx 300km http://www.heavens-above.com/orbit.aspx?satid=40651&lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=UCT

If it's a lot faster than something like ISS it's not a satellite.

Yes............by 0.1km/sec. Lets face it we won't find much if anything orbiting at 150kms.

All you can say is it's a UFO until you can identify it, UFO does not mean it's alien in anyway. It is possible it could still be a very high speed aircraft at a very high altitude as these conditions may not create a boom or you may not be in the footprint of it. I would go for very high aircraft being lit by sunlight, you may not see the strobes from the reflective glare.

I'm not disputing what you saw but at the speed you report it just cannot be a satellite if it's a lot faster than ISS. If it's reflected light and an aircraft I would expect the craft to be very high up to catch the sunlight, so may be you will not hear anything. Could it be something top secret, possible, who knows, but I would think it would'nt be doing more than the low thousands of mph in the atmosphere. and you would'nt want it to be reflective for sure.

Basically to orbit the earth in a low circular orbit like ISS the object has to be moving at approx 8km/sec. Why is this? Satellites are falling all the time but they move quickly enough that their fall rate equals the curvature rate of the earth. For every 8km towards the horizon the earth falls away by approx 5metres. If you disregard atmospheric drag an object moving at 8km/sec will fall approx 5metres in one second. Low earth orbit is in the range of 200 to 2000kms. The speed range of objects in this LEO band is 6.9 to 7.8km/s for a circular orbit. For an eliptical orbit the speed would would be in the range of 6.5 to 8.2km/sec There is a special orbit, the Molniya, which is highly eliptical, here the speed range is 1.5 to 10km/sec. If you see something that is moving a lot faster than your average satellite like ISS, it's most likely something closer to the earth and more likely an aircraft.

The belt mod is worth doing imo, certainly makes the mount nice and quiet.

Those are the numbers you quote to any bearing supplier. 689 2ZZ 2ZZ is 2 metal shields 6006 2RS 2RS is two rubber seals The taper roller is just 30205 no shields on those There are quite a few on the net like Simply Bearings or Bearing King just do a google for bearings and take your pick. What I would do is take the mount apart and see if any are rough then just replace those. When I did mine two of the 6006 were very rough but I replaced the lot.

The bearings in mine were 2 taper rollers 30205 4 worm bearings 689 2ZZ 6x 6006 2RS

Been looking to get some microfocusers for my lenses, decided to give TS a try. Placed an order around 9.00am Wednesday and by 15.15pm had an email saying they were ready to go. At 20.33pm had another email with the UPS tracking number. They arrived today at my office around lunchtime with a nice little pack of sweets inside. Excellent service from Germany with very good comms all round, thank you TS. Here are the nice microfocusers.

Another one, yes please.

The filter only has the effect of reducing the CCD's Back focus could be a poor choice, in the normal camera world it's FFD ( Flange Focal Distance ) or several other variations. I think all we have to know is that to bring the altered focal point back to the focal plane is increase the optical path.

Yes it is correct. QSI publish data don't know about other makers. Here is one QSI sheet. http://www.qsimaging.com/downloads/QSI-500-600-Series-Back-Focus.pdf

Think the only way with a compact is afocal although may be some else knows better. You could buy an adapter that lets you mount a compact for afocal. http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adaptors/skywatcher-universal-camera-adapter.html Think you would be limited to moon and planets may be double stars. The altazi mount is not much use for dso.

Bright and misty tonight. Having a go at the M38 area.

Everytime I 'm out imaging I normally see at least one or two. Last time there was seven flashes from one satellite traveling near Cassiopeia after the last flash I could just detect the feint satellite, in my 10x50 bins, travelling north.

Your not wrong as such. Flats should be at a low ISO but DSS expects them to be at the same as the lights. You can do flats later as long as nothing changes in the setup. Temperature does'nt matter and of course the exposure will not be the same as lights.

The fastest speed for a LEO satellite at the lowest possible Earth orbit, 150Km, is approx 7.8Km/sec. ISS is at approx 330Km and moving at 7.7Km/sec. So no satellite will appear to move 4 times faster than ISS.

The forecast for the weekend was near spot on. Would have had two clear nights over the weekend but loads of contrails stopped play.

I used to do the same Robin but from home. 200Watts and 2x13ele Cushcrafts and a DTR for high speed CW. It was always exciting as you never knew what would happen. From my hole in the ground I could reach out about 2000kms maximum. Mike still G1HWY

Nice idea. As soon as my obsy roof is opened it will be cloudy, guaranteed. My obsy roof was bang on last night. Not a cloud in sight all day but come 10.30PM, open obsy roof, within 5minutes cloudy.

Depends on the light source, for sodium here. The best IMO are the Hutech ones, pricey but they are very good, I have this one http://www.firstlightoptics.com/light-pollution-reduction-imaging/idas-p2-light-pollution-suppression-filter.html If your using a dslr also consider the Astronomik CLS clip, very good as well. http://www.modernastronomy.com/filtersAstronomik.htm

Don't know how accurate mine is but I get nice stars with a 3 minute DARV. First image is star near the meridian 3minutes each way, bang on. Second image star to the East, 3minutes each way, slightly off. I fixed the East one with the PHD drift method as it's quicker.

Stack of six frames from last night, lots of cloud about, 1/250 sec iso100, setup as my sig.