Satellite Identification

[Mike]

Does anyone know a good way of identifying unknown satellites? We were looking through Petra's scope last night and Petra said she could see something flashing. I had a look and could see it too. We were looking at Albireo and it was 20:41 The object went from N to S very very slowly and flashed every 4 seconds. I reckon it was about Mag 8. The speed at which it moved at though was incredibly slow. It must have taken 3-4 minutes to move across the field of view of the 24mm eyepiece which is much slower than any satellite i've seen before.

Any ideas on how to try to identify it?

[mickw]

Heavens Above ?

This is at my location -
http://www.heavens-above.com/AllSats.aspx

You'll need to change to your location etc.

[RobertM]

If you have trouble finding it then I think I have.

[Mike]

Found it, it was Molniya 1-63 a Russian communications satellite. I found it with Skysafari Plus.

It has an orbital period of 12 hours which will explain the very slow movement. Also many other people have reported observations on satobs.org of it flashing so this particular one must be spinning.

[Mike]

If you have trouble finding it then I think I have.

Is that what you found Robert?

[RobertM]

Yes, that's the one.  It was at an altitude of 22,940 miles so that explains the very slow movement

[Mac]

It cant be at that altitude, as that would put it in the Clarke belt, which would mean that it would be geostationary.

And clearly it was moving, so it would have to have been at a lower orbit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_orbit



Mac

[MarkS]

It cant be at that altitude, as that would put it in the Clarke belt, which would mean that it would be geostationary.

And clearly it was moving, so it would have to have been at a lower orbit.

Elliptical orbit?

[Mac]

Could be, but then it would be crossing other orbital belts.

Mac.

[JohnP]

Orbital data for this satellite shows Perigee 2307km & Apogee of 38071km so definitely not a circular orbit...

[Rick]

Elliptical orbit?

Highly elliptical, according to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molniya_%28satellite%29

[Mac]

Interesting.

Mac

[RobertM]

The orbit is highly elliptical and at high inclination to the ecliptic, see Wikipedia on Molniya for more info.  Just because a satellite is at the same distance from earth as geostationary satellites doesn't mean it's in a geostationary orbit - in this case it's passing through that orbit on it's way in or out.  This group of satellites seem to have a period of about 12 hours.

Robert