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168:. 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
327:' 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
183:'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.
323:. 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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83:. People with this hobby are variously called satellite watchers, trackers, spotters, observers, etc. Since satellites outside
614:"Distributed Ground Station Network - A Global System For Tracking And Communication With Small Satellites As An Open Service"
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the
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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
548:"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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278:) 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
502:"Satellite Spotters Glimpse Secrets, and Tell Them"
274:satellite with an objective mirror as large as the
221:(AR) technologies, satellite watching programs for
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161:in relation to the story about falling American
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700:Oberhaus, Daniel (3 September 2019).
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225:have been developed. During the 64th
117:Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
747:"Observing Geostationary Satellites"
666:Brumfiel, Geoff (2 September 2019).
227:International Astronautical Congress
47:Baker-Nunn satellite tracking camera
151:In February 2008 the front page of
140:. The program was an analog to the
103:the observer's sky, usually during
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604:iPhone Satellite Augmented Reality
500:Schwartz, John (5 February 2008).
123:program in 1956 to enlist amateur
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468:"Remembering "Project Moonwatch""
831:Archive of SeeSat-L mailing list
514:from the original on 25 May 2019
805:from the original on 2008-02-27
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558:from the original on 9 May 2019
321:red and green navigation lights
865:shows you where to look using
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546:Clark, Stephen (24 May 2017).
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595:"Satellite Augmented Reality"
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423:"Operation Moonwatch Begins"
259:and identified the specific
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75:and tracking of artificial
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291:success further away from
241:projects of universities.
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775:at Nasa Earth Observatory
310:Although to the observer
304:geosynchronous satellites
766:"Three classes of orbit"
863:See A Satellite Tonight
431:Smithsonian Institution
331:Satellite watcher clubs
170:electronic mailing list
95:may visibly glint (or "
845:How to Spot Satellites
427:Siris-sihistory.si.edu
403:. hobbyspace.com. 2013
276:Hubble Space Telescope
91:, those especially in
71:which consists of the
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673:National Public Radio
248:launch site accident
145:Ground Observer Corps
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401:"Satellite Watching"
883:Observation hobbies
735:Geostationary orbit
627:2013 in Beijing on
473:Sky & Telescope
341:Astronomical League
282:Spotting satellites
197:military satellites
121:Operation Moonwatch
867:Google Street View
836:Satellite watching
788:" at Knowledge.com
771:2014-08-16 at the
752:2014-10-08 at the
737:" at Knowledge.com
645:2016-12-05 at the
619:2013-11-06 at the
600:2016-03-05 at the
582:2006-04-06 at the
365:Pass (spaceflight)
229:2013 in Beijing a
212:satellite tracking
204:digital revolution
154:The New York Times
65:satellite spotting
61:Satellite watching
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215:computer programs
55:Satellite tracker
16:(Redirected from
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208:planetarium
159:Ted Molczan
125:astronomers
99:") as they
73:observation
18:Ted Molczan
888:Satellites
877:Categories
809:2008-02-14
629:SlideShare
381:References
354:pinpoint."
261:classified
189:militaries
77:satellites
480:30 August
437:29 August
317:contrails
79:that are
803:Archived
769:Archived
750:Archived
643:Archived
617:Archived
598:Archived
580:Archived
556:Archived
512:Archived
359:See also
347:SeeSat-L
302:Because
239:cubesats
174:SeeSat-L
137:sputniks
105:twilight
101:traverse
89:sunlight
87:reflect
651:YouTube
268:USA-224
250:tweeted
246:Iranian
202:As the
172:called
166:USA-193
111:History
840:Curlie
562:25 May
518:25 May
433:. 1957
264:spysat
133:Soviet
707:Wired
325:flare
272:KH-11
97:flare
69:hobby
67:is a
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520:2019
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409:2019
351:list
339:The
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