Nanosail D

[JB80]

Hi all.

I was wondering if anybody here has had any luck in observing/imaging this as I understand it is not the brightest object?

For those that don't know the Nanosail D is basically a test run to study the deployment of a solar sail in space.

There is also an imaging contest that will give cash to the best photos taken of the sail.

Nanosail D | Unfurl the Future

NASA - NanoSail-D Home Page

NanoSail-D - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was also wonering if there is a stellarium script for it?

[yeti monster]

HA is offering me a mag. 2.0 pass of Nanosail-D on 27th Feb. Rising due North (19:33) and passing to the East of Polaris, entering shadow West of Leo (19:42). Weather will play a large part in whether I actually get to winess this.

I am seeing another 2.0 pass on March 2nd @ 19:01.

Figners, as they say, are crossed...

[JB80]

I have one tonight at mag 1.9 at about 19:30 too but the clouds don't look like lifting here for that, I will be keeping an eye out though for passes on a clear night. Spaceweather has an bit today about how it is getting brighter all the time.

[Tantalus]

I tried for it tonight, a mag 2 pass, but failed to spot it - It's quite slow moving which I think makes it harder to pick out. I'll keep on trying though.

[sandspider]

Has anybody had any look with the NanoSail? Would love to see some images.

[yeti monster]

Not as yet...

... I think it'll be too dim for my puny camera anyway.

[Tantalus]

120mm f8.3 Refractor

26mm Plossl (38.5x)

Yes. Gotcha!...

After weeks of updating TLE's and many unsuccessful spotting attempts, I've finally managed to catch a glimpse of this elusive beast. I only just managed to catch it for about 15 seconds at the end of it's 23:30 pass, passing east of Cassiopeia at 23:36:12 before dipping behind a neighbours house, and at around 7th magnitude. But at least now I know the TLE I'm using are accurate enough.

Woohoo!!!

[george7378]

I got it once - it was flashing sporadically with the naked eye, and as you can see by the extreme editing I had to do to the photo, it was quite faint overall:

Faint NanoSail-D flare (contrast/colour enhanced) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

It was really tricky to observe, as you've said!

[Andrew*]

I have tried this one a few times, when it's been around mag. 2 and never succeeded. No idea why!

[Tantalus]

01:59 BST 25/05/11. Another Nanosail observation, through binoculars.

This was not an easy observation because it was low in the west, where I'm looking out over the illuminated road, and hidden by housing for the start of it's pass. The prediction had it passing about 1 arcminute from Vindemiatrix, which just happened to be directly above the nearest and brightest orange streetlight at the time . Despite the annoying LP, I caught the Nanosail as expected near Vindemiatrix, and watched it tumble it's way across the sky for around 2.5 mins before it dipped back behind the houses towards the south.

I could see it flaring at regular intervals. I could make out two flares in quick succession; one brighter flare followed by a lesser flare, in an asymmetric pattern that repeated about every two seconds.

[Dave]

According to Space Weather it has started to flash as bright as a 1st magnitude star.

This probably means it is tumbling as it orbits and alternately catching the sunlight.

Use Heavens-Above Home Page for predictions.

Dave