Orion Nebula and Meteor

[jakob]

While taking a series of exposures of M42 I caught this trail.

D7000 & 300mm lens, 140 sec, f7.1, tracking on HEQ5 mount.

From Kellyville at 1.30am 16/12/12.

[ew (Eric)]

I like it, adds interest to the shot

[rat156]

Hate to be a party pooper, but that's a satellite, not a meteor.

Cheers
Stuart

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Nice one Jakob

[jakob]

Stuart,
It looks like a Satellite but it was taken at 1am with the sun 33deg below the horizon. Can a salellite be visible under these conditions?

Also SN does not show a satelite passing at that time.

Any other comments?

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by jakob

Stuart,
It looks like a Satellite but it was taken at 1am with the sun 33deg below the horizon. Can a salellite be visible under these conditions?

Also SN does not show a satelite passing at that time.

Any other comments?

There are lots of geostationary satellites that pass through Orion. These are in a high enough orbit (35786Km) that at some times of the year (notably around the solstices in June and December) they will be out of the Earth's shadow all night. At that distance a bit of trigonometry gives the Earth shadow a radius about 6200Km and puts the satellite 15000Km south of the ecliptic.
Does SN have all the satellites or just ones bright enough to see visually?
CalSky will let you search for much dimmer ones.

[rat156]

I'm getting Calsky notifications for the ISS for 1 AM so I assume as long as its in a high enough orbit, you'll get satellite trails all night.
Cheers
Stuart