Tracking Satellites That Aren't There

stacybro writes "Wired is running an interesting article about amateur astronomers tracking "black" satellites." From the article: "The observers, who congregate on a Web site called Heavens-Above and a mailing list called SeeSat-L, have amassed an impressive collection of information and expertise. For two decades, they have played a high tech game of hide-and-seek with the US's National Reconnaissance Office, a secretive satellite agency. By coordinating their efforts, amateur observers in Europe, North America, and South Africa monitor satellites at different phases of their journeys and extrapolate the precise dimensions of their orbits." This is in addition to the ones we know about and even the ones we think we know about.

Nothing There

[blackmonday]

"Nothing to see here, please move along".

Never has it been so relevant.

If people are not careful they might go blind

[TheLink]

The last bit on "How to Track a Black Bird" doesn't seem to say anything about making sure to avoid looking at the sun especially with binoculars.

Re:If people are not careful they might go blind

[PFI_Optix]

Crap. You figured out ou...umm...the Feds' backup plan. Back to the drawing board, I guess.

Re:Misunderestimated?

[mslinux]

It's a red herring... they're trying to keep us from noticing the satellites going the other way (against the rotation of the earth)... they're up there, you just don't expect them to be going backwards. So when someone sees one, they think it was a fluke.

"Hey, Bob, did you see that? It looked like a satellite going the wrong way. Have you been drinking hard cider again Henry? You know they always travel over the shed in the backyard toward the school house... that's the only way they can go! I've been drinking beer and tracking these things for damn near 20 years and I ain't once seen one come from that direction..."

How to see a black satellite...

[Finnegar]

...against a black background?

It's on fire?

Feel like Rummy

[hob42]

The public satellites are the ones that we know that we know, and these are the ones we know we don't know.

What about the ones that we don't know that we don't know?

Oh-oh Slashdot is supporting terrorists

[kimvette]

Dubya to order the FBI to shut down /. in 3, 2, 1^HNKLH&*@*^^#Y(BHO)@*Y(#H)@*G