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157:. American officials were reluctant to provide information about the satellite, and instead, Ted Molczan, as the article says, "uncovers some of the deepest of the government’s expensive secrets and shares them on the Internet." Molczan participates with a group of other sky-watchers who have created a "network of amateur sky-watchers and satellite observers" who focus on "spotting secret intelligence-gathering satellites launched by the United States, Russia and China." As of 2017, the amateurs continue to make their sightings and analysis public on the internet via an
316:' as it changes orientation relative to the viewer, suddenly increasing in reflectivity. Satellites often grow dimmer and are more difficult to see toward the horizons. Because reflected sunlight is necessary to see satellites, the best viewing times are for a few hours immediately after nightfall and a few hours before dawn. Given the number of satellites now in orbit, a fifteen-minute session of sky watching will generally yield at least one satellite passing overhead.
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more than binoculars, a stopwatch, and a basic knowledge of orbital mechanics. But despite the low-tech observation techniques, their predictions of satellite movements are often accurate to within a few seconds. ... This is the first time in three and a half decades that an image has become public that reveals the sophistication of US spy satellites in orbit.
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are easy to find,' says
Michael Thompson, a graduate student in astrodynamics at Purdue University who spots satellites in his spare time. Once a satellite is seen, it's relatively easy to work out exactly where it will be at any point in future. 'Using math to calculate an orbit is really easy,' he says.
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the satellite spotters who, needing little more than a pair of binoculars, a stop watch and star charts, uncover some of the deepest of the government's expensive secrets and share them on the
Internet. Thousands of people form the spotter community. Many look for historical relics of the early space
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satellites can move at a similar speed as high altitude commercial aircraft, individual satellites can be faster or slower; they do not all move at the same speed. Individual satellites never deviate in their velocity (speed and direction). They can be distinguished from aircraft because satellites
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satellites also move too quickly to be tracked easily by the telescopes available to astronomers. It is this movement, as the satellite tracks across the night sky, that makes them possible to see. As with any sky-watching pastime, the darker the sky the better, so hobbyists will meet with better
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a small community of amateur satellite trackers was far more interested in the picture than the words. These individuals use backyard telescopes to watch satellites whizzing across the sky, and they know where most of them are—even classified ones like USA 224. 'They're super bright in the sky and
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citizen observation program to spot enemy bombers. Moonwatch was crucial until professional stations were deployed in 1958. The program was discontinued in 1975. The people who had been involved continued to track satellites however and began to concentrate on satellites that had been omitted from
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Since the trajectories of classified satellites are not published by the
Department of Defense, Langbroek had to rely on orbit data collected by a global network of amateur spy-satellite hunters. This community obsessively documents the movements of classified objects in space, often using little
172:'s Orbital Information Group had been providing free information about over 10,000 objects in Earth orbit. US security authorities identified identified this as a security threat, and a pilot program was launched in 2008 to replace the NASA OIG website with a
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age, working from publicly available orbital information. Others watch for phenomena like the distinctive flare of sunlight glinting off bright solar panels of some telephone satellites. Still others are drawn to the secretive world of spy satellites.
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of an amateur sky-watching group that focuses on spotting the military intelligence-gathering satellites of the United States, Russia and China. Many of these satellites are "visible with the naked eye and require only data-sharing to
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Today most observers use digital still cameras or video cameras; imagery is put into
Astrometry software to generate the angles needed to generate "observations" that are used to calculate orbits of the satellites imaged.
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move slowly relative to the viewer they can be difficult to find and were not typically sought when satellite watching. However, with digital cameras it is easy to photograph most high-altitude satellites.
312:. They are lit solely by the reflection of sunlight from solar panels or other surfaces. A satellite's brightness sometimes changes as it moves across the sky. Occasionally a satellite will '
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method to track satellite beacon signals by a
Distributed Ground Station Network (DGSN) was presented. The purpose of this network at announcement was to support
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Satellite watching started by being done with the naked eye or with the aid of binoculars since predictions of when they would be visible was difficult; most
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There are many satellite watcher clubs, which collect observations and issue awards for observations according to various rules.
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72:. People with this hobby are variously called satellite watchers, trackers, spotters, observers, etc. Since satellites outside
603:"Distributed Ground Station Network - A Global System For Tracking And Communication With Small Satellites As An Open Service"
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the
Satellite Catalog (deliberately), these satellites are from the US and other, allied, countries.
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Real-time tracking of Earth
Observation satellite overpasses, acquisition plans and data updates
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can be counteracted by the skills of satellite watchers, who can calculate the orbits of many
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Torch, 9/1956, p. 1, Annual Report of the
Smithsonian Institution for the year 1957, p. 8, 74
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Amateur satellite spotting traces back to the days of early artificial satellites when the
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to aid satellite spotting emerged. In the 2010s, accompanied by the development of
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This article is about the hobby. For the professional and scientific practice, see
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site (Space-Track.org) with somewhat more controlled access. The practice by the
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of countries such as the United States to not distribute all of their satellite
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In 2019, amateur sky-watchers analyzed the high-resolution photograph of an
537:"Observers spot top secret satellite launched by SpaceX earlier this month"
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Activity involving the observation and tracking of artificial satellites
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566:"Satellite watchers worried about Air Force restrictions"
267:) that had taken the photograph, and when it was taken.
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computes times that satellites pass over your location.
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hosted an article about an amateur satellite watcher
491:"Satellite Spotters Glimpse Secrets, and Tell Them"
263:satellite with an objective mirror as large as the
210:(AR) technologies, satellite watching programs for
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689:Oberhaus, Daniel (3 September 2019).
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214:have been developed. During the 64th
106:Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
736:"Observing Geostationary Satellites"
655:Brumfiel, Geoff (2 September 2019).
216:International Astronautical Congress
36:Baker-Nunn satellite tracking camera
140:In February 2008 the front page of
129:. The program was an analog to the
92:the observer's sky, usually during
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593:iPhone Satellite Augmented Reality
489:Schwartz, John (5 February 2008).
112:program in 1956 to enlist amateur
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457:"Remembering "Project Moonwatch""
820:Archive of SeeSat-L mailing list
503:from the original on 25 May 2019
794:from the original on 2008-02-27
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547:from the original on 9 May 2019
310:red and green navigation lights
854:shows you where to look using
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535:Clark, Stephen (24 May 2017).
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1:
584:"Satellite Augmented Reality"
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412:"Operation Moonwatch Begins"
248:and identified the specific
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64:and tracking of artificial
25:International Space Station
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280:success further away from
230:projects of universities.
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764:at Nasa Earth Observatory
299:Although to the observer
293:geosynchronous satellites
755:"Three classes of orbit"
852:See A Satellite Tonight
420:Smithsonian Institution
320:Satellite watcher clubs
159:electronic mailing list
84:may visibly glint (or "
834:How to Spot Satellites
416:Siris-sihistory.si.edu
392:. hobbyspace.com. 2013
265:Hubble Space Telescope
80:, those especially in
60:which consists of the
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662:National Public Radio
237:launch site accident
134:Ground Observer Corps
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390:"Satellite Watching"
872:Observation hobbies
724:Geostationary orbit
616:2013 in Beijing on
462:Sky & Telescope
330:Astronomical League
271:Spotting satellites
186:military satellites
110:Operation Moonwatch
856:Google Street View
825:Satellite watching
777:" at Knowledge.com
760:2014-08-16 at the
741:2014-10-08 at the
726:" at Knowledge.com
634:2016-12-05 at the
608:2013-11-06 at the
589:2016-03-05 at the
571:2006-04-06 at the
354:Pass (spaceflight)
218:2013 in Beijing a
201:satellite tracking
193:digital revolution
143:The New York Times
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204:computer programs
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702:4 September
668:2 September
396:2 September
197:planetarium
148:Ted Molczan
114:astronomers
88:") as they
62:observation
877:Satellites
866:Categories
798:2008-02-14
618:SlideShare
370:References
343:pinpoint."
250:classified
178:militaries
66:satellites
469:30 August
426:29 August
306:contrails
68:that are
792:Archived
758:Archived
739:Archived
632:Archived
606:Archived
587:Archived
569:Archived
545:Archived
501:Archived
348:See also
336:SeeSat-L
291:Because
228:cubesats
163:SeeSat-L
126:sputniks
94:twilight
90:traverse
78:sunlight
76:reflect
640:YouTube
257:USA-224
239:tweeted
235:Iranian
191:As the
161:called
155:USA-193
100:History
829:Curlie
551:25 May
507:25 May
422:. 1957
253:spysat
122:Soviet
696:Wired
314:flare
261:KH-11
86:flare
58:hobby
56:is a
704:2019
670:2019
553:2019
509:2019
471:2019
428:2019
398:2019
340:list
328:The
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226:and
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170:NASA
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614:IAC
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