Vermin of the Skies

[David Strange]

I was quietly imaging IC2118 the reflection nebula in Orion in a series of 30s exp. when I was rudely interrupted by what I thought at first was a passing satellite. However, it was not moving fast and in each frame left a short streak a few arc minutes in length.However, it was not a solitary object but was followed by a fleet of them, 8 in total. the final 4 where in a tight array. I’m guessing these were geostationary satellites but yet to identify what they were.

Here’s a cropped version of the series of images:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b37exszm2etbkfy/IC2118_anim.gif?dl=0

36 x 30s exp. Image run start: 2019-12-17 23:08h until 2019-12-17 23:26h

If this represents the state of things to come, then it’s a dire outlook. These trails were not removed by sigma stacking.

David

[Steve Knight]

Given the location, number and that they were moving slowly geostationary satellites is my guess. 

[Dr Paul Leyland]

Geosynchronous satellites have been plentiful for decades now.  The good thing is that their orbits are known precisely and their ephemerides are widely available so that you can take your images at times when they are absent.  Further, they are confined to a small strip of the sky so there are many other areas to image without their intrusion.

The real err… persons born to unmarried parents, are the likes of the Starlink constellation.  IMAO, anyway.

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