SATELLITES

Geocentric satellites frequently appear in our data, however due to their speed and brightness reviewers are unlikely to mistake them for reportable FMOs. Again, reviewers should not report satellite trails.
Example image of a satellite

NON-REPORTABLE: Satellite

CHARACTERISTICS:
The trail is extremely bright, as brighter than most of the stars. Although the brightness should make the reviewer suspicious, it is not unknown for an FMO to be this bright - the "not reportable" status is due to the trail length. This trail is so long that its endpoints were off the image! Reportable FMOs should never be longer than 130 pixels (24 deg/day of motion), anything longer moves too fast for Spacewatch to acquire further observations.

Example image of satellite

OBJECT: Satellite

CHARACTERISTICS:
This is another example of satellite. The trail is dim and looks like a promising FMO. But it should not be resubmitted to the Spacewatch observer since the trail length is too long.


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