Yes indeed !!! It’s winter again with its dark sky – It’s time to chase SMOS overpasses

For those that want to try this challenge, here is a link to aboveheaven. In this website you will obtain the dates and time of the best overpasses above your location. You can even ask for a sky chart showing the SMOS pass against the constellations and stars to help you to find it.First, in the Configuration section, locate yourself on the Earth by selecting either “select from map” or “from database” or “edit manually” if you know your GPS coordinates. Then find the Satellites section and click on  “Select a satellite from the database”. Typein SMOS in the Satelitte name input field and then click on the Submit button, and then on the ” SMOS In Earth Orbit” link.Finally, you can click on “Passes (visible)” above the Earth image that appeared, and you will get the dates and times of the SMOS passes to come that are visible from your location (illuminated) with the elevations, the azimuths and times for the start, maximum and stop overpass.And the last jewel is to click on one of the date obit you want and you will get the overpass against the global sky constellations and stars with a focus and detailed star map for the maximum overpass.

An then you can say “And besides, it’s real !!!”

as it is shown below by Manuel Castillo and Miguel Sanchez from ESAC who took this nice picture last Friday from ESAC/Spain. Don’t forget that the image can be enlarged twice, first by clicking on it and then by clicking again (+ magnifier).Enjoy.

Dear Philippe,Find attached the picture of the SMOS track obtained in our Fridayexperiment @ ESAC... Not bad for the light pollution here.Now, I need to identify the stars to estimate a first intrinsic magnitudefor SMOS... I am working on it.Regards,Manuel.