(meteorobs) satellite question

[Richard Alloway]

It is not uncommon for LEO satellites to take about 10-12 minutes to span
the sky.

The ISS, for instance, is a LEO at about 300-400 km above the earth and will
take about 11 minutes to travel horizon to horizon during a pass with a
zenith altitude of about 40 degrees.

-Rich

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He's just this guy... ya know?!
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On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 1:27 PM, Mike Hankey <mike.hankey at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello Observers,
>
> I have a question about something I noticed in a series of pictures I
> took during the Geminids.
>
> Basically I have what looks to be a small flare, (2-3x bigger than a
> star, but still very small). The flare is present and moving in a
> series of 40 pictures (30 second exposures each) that span 20 minutes
> total. The flare is not visible in every picture but it is visible in
> 2 or 3 in a row, then not visible for 5 pictures, then shows up again.
> It seems to clearly be moving in a linear fashion towards the horizon
> against the star trails.
>
> The only explanation I can come up with is that its a satellite (maybe
> a tumbling one), but to me it seems to be moving far to slow to be a
> satellite as it takes 20 minutes to traverse the field of view of the
> camera. Most satellite streaks I have captured usually last 1 or 2
> frames max (30-60 seconds).
>
> Are there slower moving satellites that could be present in a single
> field of view for a 20 minute time frame? I checked calsky and didn't
> really see satellites that would appear in the same part of the sky
> for more than a minute or two.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike
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