Catch a Glimpse of ESA’s Cluster Spacecraft

Over the next couple of months ESA’s Cluster spacecraft are going to get very close to Earth, with the orbit of one of the four satellites dropping as low as 200-300km from the Earth’s surface. This is low enough that you may indeed be able to spot – and if you’re skilled enough, take pictures of – the spacecraft.

ESA's Cluster Spacecraft

The four satellites – named Rumba, Salsa, Samba and Tango – were launched in 2000 to study the interaction between the Earth’s magnetic field and the Sun’s solar wind, and because there are four of these satellites, orbiting Earth in a tetrahedral configuration (i.e. one satellite at each of the apexes of a triangular pyramid) the Earth’s magnetosphere can be mapped in 3D.

The solar wind interacts with the Earth's magnetosphere

During June and July 2011 one of the Satellites, Cluster II (Salsa), will come within 200-300km of the surface of the Earth, which means there is a chance you might see it.

They might not be visible from the UK – in fact the British Astronomical Association suggest that the best chance of seeing these satellites is from latitude 20-30 N, so for anyone holidaying in the Canary Islands this summer there’s a chance you’ll catch a glimpse. There is a chance they’ll be visible further north too, from Europe. In any event, the brightness of the satellites is unknown at this stage, and so we can’t tell how easy it will be to spot, even if it’s visible from where you are.

The best way of checking whether the satellites are visible from where you are is to use the excellent Heavens Above website. Enter your observing location and then under “Satellites” click “select another satellite”, then in the “Satellite Name” box type “Cluster%” (the % is important). You can then select each of the four Cluster satellites and in the upper right corner of the information panel you can click “Passes (visible)” to see if there are any passes worth watching for from your location.

This will give you five crucial bits of information:

• date of passes
• magnitude (brightness) of the satellite (it is currently showing ?)
• the time, altitude, and direction of when the visible pass starts
• the time, altitude, and direction of when the satellite at its highest in the sky
• the time, altitude, and direction of when the visible pass ends

ESA have even announced a competition on Facebook, where they are encouraging people to try and image the satellites! This is no mean feat, but not without precedent. In fact a number of very experienced astrophotographers have caught images of the International Space Station as it orbits about 360km overhead. One of my favourites is this one by Thierry Legault, of the space shuttle Atlantis approaching the International Space Station where both were silhouetted in front of the Sun.

Thierry Legault's incredible image of Atlantis and the ISS taken from Earth

Happy satellites hunting, and let me know if you catch a glimpse!

(HT to the BAA for bringing this to my attention).