LandSat 9 Centaur Upper Stage De-Orbit Burn

[William Stewart]

Hi All,

Just a heads up on this potential observing opportunity.

IF LandSat 9 launches on schedule tonight then there is a chance that the de-orbit burn of the Centaur upper stage may be visible over the UK at around 21:10 UT (22:10 BST).

Keep an eye on Marco Langbroek’s twitter feed here and on SeeSat L and on SpaceFlightNow

The satellite is launching southwards from Vandenburg AFB. Passing over Antarctica it will then proceed northwards. From the UK it will rise above the SE horizon IN SHADOW (hence not visible) at 21:04 UT, eventually passing into sunlight near Polaris at around 21:10 UT.

As ever with these things, there’s always a degree of uncertainty but if visible, it will look somewhat comet-like – just moving across the sky at the same sort of speed as a satellite.

Clear Skies  – and thanks to Cees and Marco for the heads up!!

William

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[stan armstrong]

Thanks forthat William..

As at now 1945BST .. Clear Skies from SE Start to Polaris ..

stan Jn3M40

Summer triangle has been visible for some 30mins..

[Neil Morrison]

Just seen it and imaged  with  samyang  85mm  F1.4 800iso  4.00 sec rather over exposed as was  expecting  something around  2 nd Magnitude.. Just absolutely took me  by  surprise and  brilliant    double  delta  shaped plume.   Will process  images and post  tomorrow  on  Members pages.

[john simpson]

Many thanks for your post – amazing view, even through trees.

[Nick James]

I missed these predictions so didn’t get to see it but my NW sky/telescope monitoring camera did. It looks like it was a pretty amazing sight. A still from the video is here and the video is here. 

[Gordon Mackie]

I was out imaging the Milky Way and luckily spotted this. I only found out afterwards that it was the LandSat 9 satellite. It was very bright and obvious, and moved across the sky quite quickly. So to keep the exposure as short as possible (to minimise motion blur) I put the ISO as high as it would go on my camera (Canon 760D, ISO12800, 1 sec). The end result isn’t the best quality, but it captured a really memorable moment.

[Grant Privett]

Wish I had seen this. Looks impressive. Do let us know if you get another headsup!

[Neil Morrison]

Images  from last evenings event .  Initially set up the Tripod mounted Camera  with Polaris Centre  Frame.  However  the Rocket Plume just  sprang into view much lower than Polaris  so  a mad  scramble to  move  the  equipment  to a spot in the garden   a few feet away  with a lower Horizon. Hence some  tripod  shake .  An amazing  sight  over in a  brief minuite

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