Amateur astronomical images of spy satellites

As anyone who has looked up at the sky just before dawn or just after dusk can attest, over the past 70 years or so there have been all sorts of satellites floating in low orbits around the Earth that are visible to the naked eye. The International Space Station has probably been the most famous of the past few decades, but there are all sorts of other satellites out there from amateur radio satellites, the Starlink constellation, satellite television, and of course, various spy satellites from some of the world’s governments. [Felix] Looks like he found one and pictures of it can be found here..

[Felix] He has been taking images of the night sky for some time, including several different satellites. While many satellites publish their paths for use, spy satellites are generally not public records but can still be located. He uses a large Dobsonian telescope to resolve images from several different satellites that are presumed to be spy satellites, with at least one hosting a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system. His images are good enough to infer the size and shape of the antennas used, as well as the size of the solar panels on board.

As for concerns about the implications of top-secret imaging technology, [Felix] But that doesn’t mean much to him. He says that most rival governments would likely be able to spot these satellites with much more powerful telescopes than his own, so anything he has published so far is unlikely to come as a surprise. What’s more, these satellites aren’t exactly hidden; they’re in the sky, and anyone can see them. If you want to try it yourself, you can buy a Dobsonian-style telescope out of spare parts, often from Ikea, and use some off-the-shelf electronics to point them in the right position, too.