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Old 02-09-2016, 07:40 AM
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Windston (Dan)
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Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Toowoomba
Posts: 80
Quote:
Originally Posted by Atmos View Post
Basically a tumbling satellite. As it rotates (spins) it can reflect sunlight down to the Earth usually off of the solar panels.
I believe that the Iridium sats are not tumbling, its just the reflective solar panels that happen to shine onto a certain location, I could be wrong but if it was spinning it would have a variable brightness that is unpredictable. I caught a tumbling sat once in an exposure of m42 as seen http://i.imgur.com/S0wJRYS.jpg here, it makes 3 different reflections.


Dan
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