This is now really interesting! The interloper in this image of NGC 3992 (M109) appears to have made 22 rotations in 15 seconds. That's ~88 rpm. Wicked fast. But - to have only covered about 9 arc-min in the sky in 15 seconds puts it in a very high orbit, comparable to satellites that are ~25,000 km above Earth. But this is _not_ an object in geosynchronous orbit, which is much higher. This _is_ approximately the median orbital altitude of a GPS satellite. But do they rotate that fast? Interesting stuff. Seth -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Wiggins Patrick Sent: Monday, January 06, 2014 11:28 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] What were the chances? It was a 15 second exposure. FOV is about 18x26 arc seconds. On 06 Jan 2014, at 08:36, Seth Jarvis <SJarvis@slco.org> wrote:

Patrick - that's a fascinating image. What was the exposure time? Can you estimate the width of the field of view? It'd be interesting to try to estimate the speed and rate of rotation of the interloper.

Thanks,

Seth

-----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Wiggins Patrick Sent: Monday, January 06, 2014 4:58 AM To: Astronomy Utah Subject: [Utah-astronomy] What were the chances?

This from tonight's supernova search:

http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/NGC_3992ZAP.JPG

Right through the core...

patrick

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Do GPS satellites spin that fast? Curious. -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Hards Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2014 9:45 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] What were the chances? Seth, look closely at the brightenings. Every other one is a bit dimmer. I think the rotation rate is about half of your estimate. Still pretty fast, but closer to ~44 rpm. On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 9:29 AM, Seth Jarvis <SJarvis@slco.org> wrote:

This is now really interesting!

The interloper in this image of NGC 3992 (M109) appears to have made 22 rotations in 15 seconds. That's ~88 rpm.

Wicked fast.

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Yes, careful navigation, timing, andflight at 55,000 feet was the secret.   Actually, I think it is space junk.  It is moving too slowly for an airplane. From: Wiggins Patrick <paw@getbeehive.net> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, January 6, 2014 11:26 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] What were the chances? On 06 Jan 2014, at 09:56, M Wilson <astro_outwest@yahoo.com> wrote:

Wow, it that what a "Pulsar" looks like? :)   My vote for the mystery object is a plane with flashing lights.

That's my guess.  Brent probably heard I was running a search and decided to put in an appearance.  :) patrick _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".