Observation by Nick James: Falcon 9 upper stage after lunar flyby

Uploaded by

Nick James

Observer

Nick James

Observed

2025 Mar 04 - 19:00

Uploaded

2025 Mar 04 - 19:37

Objects

Spacecraft

Equipment

ASI6200MM + Celestron HD11

Exposure

15x10s

Location

Chelmsford, UK

Target name

2025-038E

Title

Falcon 9 upper stage after lunar flyby

About this image

While waiting for it to get dark I did a quick set of frames at the expected position of the Falcon 9 upper stage that launched IM-2 and other spacecraft on Feb 26. It's within an arcminute of the predicted position based on our previous astrometry. It flew close to the Moon at lunchtime yesterday and got deflected from a geocentric to a heliocentric orbit so it will now slowly move away. It is currently around 435,000 km away and mag 16.7. It should be trackable in my telescope through until the Autumn.

Files associated with this observation

2025038E_20250304_1900_ndj.jpg (471.1 kB)

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Dominic Ford, Paul G. Abel

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