Astra satellites in Formation.

[Dave]

Despite thin clouds I decided to have a go at some geosynchronous satellites.
I aimed for a spot Sky Safari showed me that Astra 2C and its associates was due to pass through.

The stars are drifting through the field of view and show as trails, but the satellites, being geosynchronous, do not drift much relative to the observer. So unlike the stars they look like pin-points of light, glinting in the Sunlight. I can see five small dots nestled amongst the trailed stars. I believe I have captured the Astra satellites 2C, 2B, 1KR, 1L an 1M. Although they are not in quite the same configuration as was being shown on my planetarium software.

Ten minutes after taking the image, the sky was clouded over.

Half an hour after coming in, the heavens opened.
Good job I had closed the dome.

[strinjf]

Nice one! 

And my useless fact of the day is that each bird is kept within a 70km cube of space. At least that was the case in the early/mid '90s according to an Astra promo film.

[Stu]

Cool :-)

Stu