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    Re: SpaceX Starlink launch: photo celestial
    From: David Pike
    Date: 2020 Jan 14, 14:52 -0800

    Dave Pike, you wrote:
    "So how far away was the camera?"

    Two miles. Right where it should be. :)  The width of that big rocket hangar (SMARF/SPOC) across the line of sight is around 310 feet. We can determine its angular width in the photo since there are many star pairs nearby in the high-resolution image. That turns out to be just about 99 minutes of arc. As always: (m.o.a) / 3438 = (size across line of sight) / distance, so we can solve for distance. I get 2.04 (statute) miles. With 5% error bars, let's call it 1.94 to 2.14 miles. Now I can draw an error ellipse based on the astronomical azimuth and the distance off from the SMARF/SPOC building, Happily my original position estimate is safely inside the ellipse.  And yes, I know: this is over-kill in a silly game. :) I left this part out  from my last post because I assumed we were at a point where no one was interested anymore. Frank Reed

    Oops!  I meant the other camera, the one videoing the explosion of Spacex Falcon 9 in Franks link - 'Read about it here'.  I trawled the internet to find the launch site but found nothing so assumed it was 39A, even though Google Maps shows there are currently fewer towers.  However, I just read the Wikipedia entry for Complex 40 and found the explosion was there.  For the Starlink launch picture, once you decided where the photograper stood you cound simply right click google maps.  Assuming the 2016 videoer wasn't necessarily in the same place as the Starlink one, how far away was the 2016 camera?  DaveP

       
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