Observation by Steve Knight: Mentor 8 satellite

Uploaded by

Steve Knight

Observer

Steve Knight

Observed

2026 Nov 08 - 22:21

Uploaded

2026 Nov 10 - 21:37

Objects

Spacecraft
The Orion Nebula (M42)

Equipment

Seestar S50 Pro

Exposure

10 sec

Location

Skilgate, Somerset

Target name

Mentor 8

Title

Mentor 8 satellite

About this image

I was curious to know why this geostationary satellite was so bright.

Turns out that it is a spy satellite operated by the National Reconnaisance Office monitoring telemetry, VHF radio, cellular mobile phones, paging signals, mobile data links and who knows what else.

The reason it is so bright (mag 8) 38,500 km out is it is very large, its antenna is 100m diameter. It would seem that it was pointing at us, funny that.

Files associated with this observation

Blink00001_pipp.gif (9.9 MB)

Like this image

Callum Potter

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