Dale, I wonder if satellites could be followed after they slip into shadow, by following their infrared signature. Do you suppose that enough IR would get through the atmosphere to be detectable by amateurs? I believe that most CCD's have a sizable chunk of their response in the IR, yes? A satellite should glow like a hot coal (in the IR) for a long time after slipping into shaddow. Good suggestion, I'd love to see the lunation movie if you find it. In 1978 or 79, I made an intervalometer for my 8mm movie camera. I had planned to make a time-lapse movie of a lunar eclipse. That night brought a solid cloud deck (of course), and I came down with the flu! Next time I needed the movie camera, I removed the intervalometer and for some reason never tried to repeat the attempt. Would be a lot easier with a CCD setup. C. --- Dale Hooper <Dale.Hooper@sdl.usu.edu> wrote:

One of the funnest things that I've done here at work was to program an LX200 to track satellite launches at VAFB "on the cheap". Satellite tracking, in general, using two line element (TLE) files is also a lot of fun.

BTW, I saw a "movie" of close to a full lunation like you were discussing - posted about a year or so ago. I'll search for the link.

Clear and dark skies.

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