MAST Update – Request for Big Eyeballs

Mixed (but mostly positive) results for the MAST mission so far.  Still no contact with Ted (Hey!  I’m here 🙂 ), but they continue to have good contact with Gadget.  I can’t tell for sure from their blog, but it looks like they think the tether is deployed, but need verification of this.  Consequently, if you have a telescope and clear skies, they would love to have you take a look and report to them what you see.

You can go to heavens-above and get the coordinates for their satellite (it’s object 31126 in their database).  On the MAST site, they also have a cool map showing where the satellite is at the moment.  Just a few minutes ago, it came fairly close to passing overhead of the Chicago area.  If these &(^%)&^$U# clouds would ever clear, I might be able to spot it.

A couple of years ago, I bought my son a Meade ETX-80 for his birthday.  It has go-to capability so, theoretically, we should just be able to update the coordinate database and find MAST.  But, we’ve had nothing but rain and clouds here for the past few days.  This weekend it is supposed to clear up and then maybe I can get a look.  I think it would be an awesome sight…