Caught: a satellite on amateur astronomer’s first video?

Daniel Pendick — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:05:00 GMT

Check out this video from Astronomy reader Robert Massey of Fort Worth, Texas. Look to the top left of the grouping of four bright stars, at about the 11 o’clock position. A blob appears to move to the left.

The video shows an object — a satellite or perhaps an asteroid? — tumbling through the field of view of Massey’s Meade 12-inch LX200 telescope. At the time he was observing M42, the Orion Nebula.

In his own words: “I have been behind a telescope for a little over a year. I recently bought an LX200 and started taking video with it. On March 2nd at 8:17 p.m., I was looking at Orion and saw an object flying though the pic. I hit record and looked up to see nothing. The video shows the item tumbling. I’m just wondering if this is normal or may be of interest. Thanks.”

I received that e-mail last week. Intrigued, I asked him to send me the video clip. At first I didn’t see anything and started to wonder if Massey was mistaking electronic noise in the camera for something real. He sent a lightened version of the clip to me and, sure enough, there is something in the sky.

Like I said, maybe a satellite or an asteroid. Who knows? The coolest thing about this incident is how it closes the sometimes-invisible circuit between the magazine and our readers.

Massey got interested in telescope video because of an article we ran in November 2008 on amateur astronomy with a web cam. He hot-glued a web cam onto a piece of tubing to adapt it to his telescope. He used free software available on the Web to run it.

Massey’s no engineer, but he knows how to fit tubes together — he’s a plumber. He bought his first scope only a year ago at a thrift store. “I like galaxies the most,” he said, “but have not been able to photograph them well yet. I’m planning to get out to a dark-sky location soon and try again. But nebulae, planets, and planetary nebulae are my other interests.”

For now, with his new LX200 and a backyard that is “not all that dark,” Massey is exploring the universe. We are glad to have been of assistance.

Astronomy.com blog : Daniel Pendick, imaging

Caught: a satellite on amateur astronomer’s first video?