Humanity Star passing over head tonight

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Geektastic

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#1963210 23-Feb-2018 22:17

josephhinvest: Yes!! Thrilled to have seen it just now. We are up at Sandspit, very dark and very clear sky. Woohoo!

How do you know that was it?

Could have been the Lizard People of Quark 9 going home.

Oblivian

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#1963211 23-Feb-2018 22:18

And I forgot. Again.

msukiwi

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#1963627 24-Feb-2018 21:14

Well it went "past" Christchurch again tonight, but I couldn't see it!

At least I did see it on Thursday night.

Beautiful night here too.

Clear, pleasant with a light breeze.

Oblivian

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#1963631 24-Feb-2018 21:19

msukiwi:

Well it went "past" Christchurch again tonight, but I couldn't see it!

At least I did see it on Thursday night.

Beautiful night here too.

Clear, pleasant with a light breeze.

Tracker appears to display what my crude drawing was trying to explain. Was in the shadow - no direct reflection of the sun, so would only likely appear in photos and not glint like previous ones

It could be lights out for us from here on in.

Behodar

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#1964078 25-Feb-2018 21:36

The tracker listed it as visible tonight and the sky was fairly clear so I took a look... and didn't see anything. It seems from the map that it's off to the south which doesn't have good visibility from my place :(

Oblivian

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#1964079 25-Feb-2018 21:37

Behodar:

The tracker listed it as visible tonight and the sky was fairly clear so I took a look... and didn't see anything. It seems from the map that it's off to the south which doesn't have good visibility from my place :(

Their main site tracker?

Cause to me all 3 passes were dashed lines = in shadow so not reflecting

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Behodar

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#1964080 25-Feb-2018 21:39

Right; the impression I got from the tracker is that it'd briefly be visible from the south (for about 2 minutes, apparently) before going out of LOS of the sun.

old3eyes

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#1964082 25-Feb-2018 21:42

I saw something heading in the correct direction about 9.35 tonite. May have been it.

Regards,

Old3eyes

Gordy7

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#1964158 25-Feb-2018 23:52

The HS was due at about 9.26pm at my place.

Went outside at about 9pm and saw what I thought was the HS. Bright and definitely a flashing - tumbling star.

Appeared to the SE and moved to the SW and rose to about 15 or 20 degrees above the horizon.

Studying the night sky later, I figured I may have seen the HS as it traversed over the Antactic region in an unrelated orbit to NZ.

Don't know what altitude the HS is at.

From NZ the south celestial pole is roughly 45 degrees so it is possible we could see the lower parts of other orbits.

Any other ideas or corrections?

Gordy

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Gordy7

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#1964874 27-Feb-2018 08:16

Just when I wanted to verify my HS observation.... Cloud... Cloud... Cloud :-)

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

idle

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#1965886 28-Feb-2018 14:08

On Saturday 24th Feb , myself and 7000 others went to an outdoor event, "Opera in the Park" at Saxton Fields , between Stoke and Richmond. It was a fine cloudless night. During the interval, just at sunset, at 8.52pm, the satellite was plainly seen in the West. The transit was rapid and was directly to the East, right overhead of the audience. From horizon to horizon the transit took 15 minutes approx. The brightness was spectacular and consistent throughout the transit.

The concert was also pretty good!

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cadman

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#1965900 28-Feb-2018 14:26

Gordy7:

Don't know what altitude the HS is at.

IIRC it's ~270-500km (eccentric).

Oblivian

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#1965913 28-Feb-2018 14:43

idle:
On Saturday 24th Feb , myself and 7000 others went to an outdoor event, "Opera in the Park" at Saxton Fields , between Stoke and Richmond. It was a fine cloudless night. During the interval, just at sunset, at 8.52pm, the satellite was plainly seen in the West. The transit was rapid and was directly to the East, right overhead of the audience. From horizon to horizon the transit took 15 minutes approx. The brightness was spectacular and consistent throughout the transit.

The concert was also pretty good!

A few people uploaded videos, I think you'll find that more matches the ISS.

http://www.heavens-above.com/passdetails.aspx?lat=-41.2706&lng=173.284&loc=Nelson&alt=5&tz=NZST&satid=25544&mjd=58173.3301547574&type=V

As the humanity star is more a S to N and a bit later and duller by that stage

http://www.heavens-above.com/passdetails.aspx?lat=-41.2706&lng=173.284&loc=Nelson&alt=5&tz=NZST&satid=43168&mjd=58173.3361815689&type=V

MikeAqua

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#1965971 28-Feb-2018 15:58

idle:

On Saturday 24th Feb , myself and 7000 others went to an outdoor event, "Opera in the Park" at Saxton Fields , between Stoke and Richmond. It was a fine cloudless night. During the interval, just at sunset, at 8.52pm, the satellite was plainly seen in the West. The transit was rapid and was directly to the East, right overhead of the audience. From horizon to horizon the transit took 15 minutes approx. The brightness was spectacular and consistent throughout the transit.

The concert was also pretty good!

I saw that too, while fishing in the Sounds. Looked similar to the ISS (which I have seen a few times).

If I'd had my phone I could have checked as I have ISS tracker on it.

Mike

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#1980998 21-Mar-2018 13:57

From Newstalk ZB (and others)

"It was expected the Humanity Star would be one of the brightest objects in the night sky for nine months, but satellite-tracking website Satview reported on Wednesday that it will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and disintegrate at 3am (NZT) on Friday."

Shame, but glad I got to see it.

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