Satellite Trio

I like it all the same John do you plan on going back
and trying to get the image you have in mind.It would
be lovely to see the shot your talking about, maybe try
with your back to the moon and do a short exposure 20-30
seconds and image the dome which will be lit up by the
moon light although you sound as though you know exactly
what you want

Ah yes Declan - I see the shot your talking about, it would be good any full moon.

I'll try to get back here some harvest moon rise and get the shot I'm thinking of, but access is limited. We (IAS) have access for meetings, but there is no permanent presence at Dunsink anymore unfortunately, so access needs to be arranged and DIAS have to come out to the site and unlock the gates etc.

They're US spy satellites which fly in triangular formation. There are a few sets of them up there and they do form a beautiful sight in binoculars. Seanie was nearly right on the name...they're known as NOSS triplets.

:oops: Thanks Gordon!

Cool shot, if you didn't know about these spy sats, you'd be asking "what the hell is that!"

Cool shot, if you didn't know about these spy sats, you'd be asking "what the hell is that!"

Coupled with the seemingly graceful rapid movement and precise unchanging distances between the points of light, it certainly did look unreal at the time.
One thing thats bugging me though is why they were so bright. Apparently NOSS satellites only reach mag 4 or so, I would reckon these must have been at least mag -1 to be so visible in broad daylight. Are these new and bigger NOSS?

found on this site: www.satobs.org/noss.html

Normally, under favourable circumstances, the NOSS satellites and the MSD reach magnitude +7 to +8, observable with 11x80 binoculars. Rarely, they brighten to magnitude +2 to +4, readily visible to the un-aided eye.

As of mid-2007, only the 1986-014 NOSS group remained in formation.

more good info here: calgary.rasc.ca/noss_triads.htm

So, looks like we have a name for your triplet, unless another set had been launched since 2007.

Fantastic image by the way, I would kill to be in the right place at the right time with the know how to get this image.