Observation by Grant Privett: 2026-199B

Uploaded by

Grant Privett

Observer

Grant Privett

Observed

2026 Sep 15 - 23:15

Uploaded

2026 Sep 19 - 13:28

Equipment

SX Trius 694
C14 + f/6.3 reducer

Exposure

15x 120s x2 binning

Location

Broad Chalke

Target name

2026-199B - F9 Heavy

Title

2026-199B

About this image

The Falcon 9 heavy booster upper stage that launched the Nancy Grace Roman space telescope is still visible, with a little effort. Its still poorly placed at -19 declination - right on my southerly limit (only half the mirror gets used) - but at about magnitude 17.4 (theres some variation) reasonably accessible. It was visible on the individual frames, but looked nicer when stacked on its predicted motion model - as shown above.

Its gradually fading and will soon become too faint to image. It won't be seen again for years.

The RST itself is a bit fainter at mag 18, so more of a challenge, but will be visible for at least 20 years, hopefully. The spacecraft ended up with more thruster propellant left for the observation phase than the design had aimed for.

Astronomy must be cool. With commercial-off-the-shelf telescopes you can see a man made object 1 million miles away. Thats astonishing and very different from when I started observing.

Files associated with this observation

2026-199B_20260915_2315_Privett-02.jpg (346.6 kB)

Like this image

Copyright of all images and other observations submitted to the BAA remains with the owner of the work. Reproduction of work by third parties is expressly forbidden without the consent of the copyright holder. By submitting images to this online gallery, you grant the BAA permission to reproduce them in any of our publications.

Registered charity no. 210769
Registered company no. 117572

For more information including contact details, click here.

Our Terms of Use are here.

Our Privacy Policy is here.