Space Junk Hunting

[Lumen Miner (Mitchell)]

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 (Mitchell)]

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 (Dave)]

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

[Lumen Miner (Mitchell)]

Originally Posted by DavidU

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

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 (Rob)]

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 (Mitchell)]

Originally Posted by 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.

Thanks, I hope so!!

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

[koputai (Jason)]

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 (Jeanette)]

Copper burns green.

[Lumen Miner (Mitchell)]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.