Several Amateur Astronomers observed the sporadic flashes in the night sky the last couple of days. (January 2017). Greg Roberts (Cape Town, South Africa), international acclaimed satellite hunter identified the mysterious flashes as a failed communication satellite, Telkom 3.
Telkom 3 (Wiki information)
Telkom-3 is an Indonesian communications satellite which was lost due to a launch failure on 6 August 2012. It was built by ISS Reshetnev for Indonesian telecommunications provider PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia. It was based on the Ekspress-1000 bus and had 32 C band transponders and 16 Ku band transponders. It was due to be located in geosynchronous orbit at 118° east above the equator,
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Some images by Hannes Pieterse, Bloemfontein, South Africa. 26th January 2017.
Time: 21:27:46 - 21:31:56
Click on the images to enlarge!
The final image. The eight stable dots are Telkom 3 moving slowly below Sirius in then constellation Canis Major. 26th January 2017. Time: 21:27:46 - 21:31:56. Seven (7) Images were stacked in Startrails; No dark frame subtraction; Tweaked in Photoshop. Canon 40D with a Canon Timer Remote Controller TC-80N3, 17-55mm f2.8. 800 ISO; 30 sec exposures. Camera mounted on tripod; City light pollution, clouds and trees hampering the imaging process.
The red dots point to the primary flashes and the yellow arrows to the secondary flashes.
Greg Roberts our satellite guru in South Africa reckons Telkom 3 is rotating, from there the secondary flashes.
Do some homework before you set up to take the photographs. Heavensat software.
Upload an image to
Astrometry.net and identify the sky, stars, constellations etc. to confirm the satellite's position in the sky.
Telkom-3S later replaced the failed Telkom 3.
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