Space Junk Hunting

[Lumen Miner]

Hi all!!
I have become interested in the recording, material which is entering our atmosphere. Of particular interest to me is meteors, yet any burnout will do...

What interested me initally was a large burnout, which I visually sighted. It was more impressive than anything I had ever seen. The material fractured and several chunks broke away just before it burnt out. The junk was coming in, almost parallel with the horizon.

Anyway, I hope to use this thread to document the sightings I have made and encourage others into the most enjoyable pursuit.


The method I am currently using, is to set up my DSLR and take a series of 30secs frames. I will capture up to 280, then review the individual frames for "junk".




I encourage anyone to add an image of what they have captured... I would prefer we keep this thread to burnup's / out's within our atmosphere. But other's are allowed too ;)

Here are some of my recent sightings. :)




Location- Beecroft, Sydney
Taken- 18-08-09

The first shows, two items of interest. It is a stack of three frames. You can see how close they came to each other.
The second is another burn out, taken on the same night.

[Lumen Miner]

Location- Beecroft, Sydney
Time- 12:14am

Visually observed burnup. Small in size. Bright orange, 25 degrees above the horizon travelling from North to South.

Should have been captured in a frame. Should be a good one, close, bright and orange. Will upload an image when i'm done capturing for the night.

[DavidU]

Looks like a lot of fun !
I have never caught a meteor in image.

[Lumen Miner]

I'm not sure if I would call them "meteors". I guess they are, but "meteor" normally implies some size.... Not sure either way, probably astronaut poop for all I know.

Seems to be a whole bunch round my way. I guess if you take 2 1/2 hours of widefield exposures, you are bound to catch something. ;)
I have a reasonable altitude for Sydney.

Although the visual, I just posted about was a fluke, walked outside, and it flew past.



Edit~ Darn!! Slightly left of frame, missed it. Blast, that would have been a good one.

[pirate of skies]

Hey Mitchell, nice catch. Do it again ?
Is there anywhere that logs space junk orbiting the earth ? I know heavens above records the iss toolbag.

[Lumen Miner]

Thanks, I hope so!!

Not sure, perhaps someone more knowledgable might come along and enlighten us. :thumbsup:

[koputai]

Is there really any way to tell if these objects are space junk or meteors? Is the colour different? Maybe poo burns orange and titanium burns blue? Bueller? Anyone?

Cheers,
Jason.

[jjjnettie]

Copper burns green.

[Lumen Miner]

I think they need to be of reasonable size in order to prominently show, colour in the tail.
The most common I see, are small little streaks of a greyish nature. Occasionally I will see a bright orange burn out. That would be more a distance thing though, rather than an indication of their make-up.