On-line tool to list artificial satellite(s) in image(s)

Overview of tools for asteroid observers on this site

Click here if you want to list the artsats found in a single images. This page can be much faster if you have a bunch of images to check, but the single-image-checker is easier to figure out.

This is a (slightly modified) on-line version of the sat_id program. With it, you can list one or more image fields of view and find what artificial satellite(s) were in them. This can be used just to identify streaks, or in advance of imaging to determine fields that ought to be avoided (or imaged at a different time). Radio astronomers may find it helpful for determining what object(s) may interfere with their observations.

Suggested quick start:

Don't panic! For each field, this program will need a field identifier ("name"), mid-time of exposure, RA, declination, and observer location. The location will usually be given as a three-character MPC code. (Click here if you don't have an MPC code for your observing site.)

Each field will therefore be a comma-separated list like this :

Object name,date,ra,dec,obscode
Example,2022 nov 18 0:50:14.78,25.73,-16.91,"J95"
Example2,"2022 nov 18 0:51:14.78","07 54 21.6",-24 12.6,J95

You can specify the time in a variety of formats. Lines that cannot be parsed (such as the first one above; "date" isn't a date) are simply ignored. The second line says that a field called "Example" was imaged on 2022 November 18 at 00:50:14.78 UTC, at a right ascension (J2000) of 25.73 degrees, declination -16.91, from (J95), an observatory in the UK. The third line says that a second field was imaged exactly a minute later at RA=07 54 21.6 (hours/minutes/seconds form), dec=-24 12.6 degrees, from the same location.

As you can see, you have some freedom in how you format the RA and dec, and fields can be in "quotation marks" or not. The commas as separators are mandatory, though.

Cut-and-paste the above into the text box below, or save it in a file and upload it using the "Browse..." button below. Set the "search distance" to 3 (degrees) and click on "Find artsats", and you'll get

Field        RA  (J2000) dec  '/min   PA  Sh NORAD Int'l desig Name
Example       25.985 -18.417   17.56  87.0   34198 1992-072AE  ARIANE 42P+ DEB
Example       26.463 -18.334    9.42  82.8   31104 2007-009C   BREEZE-M R/B
Example       22.840 -16.359  454.87 324.8 * 42638 1975-052LX  DELTA 1 DEB
(some lines omitted)
Example2     118.320 -21.369  691.43  58.1 * 51969 2022-025P   STARLINK-3680
Example2     119.458 -21.457  460.89 216.8 * 43461 2018-043A   GAOFEN-5
Example2     119.347 -21.419   32.25  23.1   15702 1985-037F   SL-12 R/B(2)
Field        RA  (J2000) dec  '/min   PA  Sh NORAD Int'l desig Name

listing each artificial satellite that was within three degrees of the specified RA/decs at those times as seen from that place. You can click here for an explanation of the output.

If you're still not getting things to work, or have questions, contact me at p‮ôç.ötulpťcéjôřp@otúl‬m (modified to baffle spammers).

Source code for this (and most tools on this site) is available on GitHub.

If you don't have an MPC observatory code

MPC provides a couple of ways around the problem of not having an MPC code. The simplest one (and the only one that works with this tool) is to use the 'XXX' code for a temporary observer. Let's say that the first field in the above example had actually been taken from N 38.14, W 82.17 (a randomly selected location in West Virginia). The text supplied to this tool would be

COM Long. 82.17 W, Lat. 38.14 N, Alt. 213m
Example,2022 nov 18 0:50:14.78,25.73,-16.91,XXX

We've specified the observer location and then used the XXX code instead of an "official" MPC one.

To Do

This is currently a little primitive. Things to be done :

The search is currently radius-based. One might want to say "my field of view is 1.3 by 0.95 degrees."
Matches are based on the exact time given. It would be useful to say, "This is a 30-second exposure; what went through the field of view during that time?" At present, you might use this for planning purposes, decide that your image would be uncontaminated, and then be unhappy.
This program currently only works for ground-based observers. Spacecraft-based observations can and should be handled. I gather Hubble has imaged a heck of a lot of artsats.
A graphical output (PDF, most likely) showing the trails going through the image rectangle could be helpful.
Optical astronomers might want to have the shadowed objects omitted.
Radio astronomers would probably prefer that the radio-inert (junk) objects not be listed. It would be nice to know what objects are active and on what frequencies; radio astronomers could then say "only list objects that transmit between freq_low and freq_high."
I do have some magnitude data for some objects, which might enable us to filter out objects below a certain brightness.
JSON output would be helpful for a programmatic interface. One can also be prolix in JSON; the output could give (for example) rates of motion in RA and dec, distance to the objects, etc.