September 26, 2007: Geostationary satellites

glatt · 09-27-2007, 04:53 PM

Undertoad, I didn't mention this before, but this IotD is a great one. Good job!

It has slowly grown on me over the last couple days. I was mulling over the possibility of taking a similar image myself. I wonder what sort of equipment you need? The link says it was taken at Kitt Peak, but not which instrument was used. I wonder if it was one of the big telescopes there, or just a camera on a tripod with a long exposure? The satellites are +10 to +14 magnitude in brightness, but I don't know exactly what that means in camera exposure speak. Eight hours is a long exposure.

Looking at the link again, it says the view spans about 10% of the arc. That's roughly like a 50mm lens. You should be able to reproduce this shot in your back yard with a 35 mm camera on a tripod! (assuming a clear night.)

Cool.

09-27-2007, 04:53 PM	#21
glatt ™ Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 27,717	Undertoad, I didn't mention this before, but this IotD is a great one. Good job! It has slowly grown on me over the last couple days. I was mulling over the possibility of taking a similar image myself. I wonder what sort of equipment you need? The link says it was taken at Kitt Peak, but not which instrument was used. I wonder if it was one of the big telescopes there, or just a camera on a tripod with a long exposure? The satellites are +10 to +14 magnitude in brightness, but I don't know exactly what that means in camera exposure speak. Eight hours is a long exposure. Looking at the link again, it says the view spans about 10% of the arc. That's roughly like a 50mm lens. You should be able to reproduce this shot in your back yard with a 35 mm camera on a tripod! (assuming a clear night.) Cool.

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