Flashing satellites ?

[Tommy Camp]

I was with some friends sleeping on a trampoline the other night when we saw a satellite moving laterally across the sky.
the interesting thing was it would "flash" at seemingly random intervals.
Would this just be a satellite spinning and thus on occaison the suns rays would reflect off particular parts of it ?
because of its constant movement in the same plane and locational similarity to normal satellites i'd suggest its nothing extraordinary im just interested as to what causes the flashing.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/....c/progress.gif http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/....ttons/edit.gif

[mozzie (Peter)]

or an aeroplane
mozzie

[astroron (Ron)]

Tommy, you are correct in your assumption in both ways there could be two sets of flashing, one from the body and one from the Solar panels.
If you have a pair of Binoculars and look you may see some fainter flashes before the brighter ones

[Tommy Camp]

Thanks Ron.
next time i see one i think i will get the binoculars out.

[theodog (Jeff)]

Originally Posted by astroron

Tommy, you are correct in your assumption in both ways there could be two sets of flashing, one from the body and one from the Solar panels.

I use to have a high interest in observing sat's. Still have some.
One with a double flash period is "tiros n", could be described as per quote.
Another with a rapid single period flash is "Cosmos 1933".

There was once a failed Japanese geostat that used to fash yet remain almost stationary. I last observed this at Ilford around 1998. Haven't seen it since, yet have not been looking.
Use the site below for planning sat. observing

http://www.heavens-above.com/

[jungle11 (Greg)]

Id noticed this sort of thing myself. I figured it would be rotating space debris because I expected that satelites would hold their orientation with the earth (not spin) so that they recieve/send signals.
Glad somebody asked this question...I was afraid some might think I was a fruitcake

[koputai (Jason)]

A lot of satellites are spin stabilised, where most of the vehicle spins, but the antenna arrays are de-spun to give stable coverage. This can give a regular flash, or variation in visual magnitude.
Many out of control satellites are tumbling, so can give various flash patterns.
The most interesting one I've seen was in the late 80's or early 90's and was a spinning geostationary satellite. I was observing with my trusty (yet very wobbly) Tasco 59T when I noticed a small flashing object in the field of view. I watched it for a while, the object not moving, but the stars passing through the view (fixed alt/az mount). I thought for a while that it might be an aircraft a long way away, but it just stayed right there. I got out the bino's and observed this thing for about an hour moving through the star field, but staying fixed in relation to the earth. In theory it should have been there every night, possibly even still there now, but I never did find it again.

Cheers,
Jason.