A different kind of HST image


The Hubble Space Telescope leaves a trail as it sails above Bill Keel's backyard in December of 1993. The telescope can be seen every couple of months (in sets of 5-7 passes) from locations within about 37 degrees of the equator, appearing as a 1-2 magnitude star (unless you are lucky enough to catch a flash of sunlight off the solar panels or another specular surface). It is easy to record with a home video camera or (as here) a 35mm camera and time exposure (this was a 30-second trail). For predicting visibility, I have had good results with SatTrack for Unix platforms and TrakSat on PCs.


UA Astronomy Home Page