Watch Formation-Flying Chinese 'Yaogan' Satellites Slip Silently Through the Stars

By Nancy Atkinson - December 4, 2014 at 7:14 PM UTC | Space Exploration
yaogan.jpg

The list of amazing things that astrophotographer Thierry Legault captures with his camera keeps growing! This time, it's a trio of hard-to see, formation-flying Chinese reconnaissance satellites called Yaogan.

"Yaogan triplets are Chinese reconnaissance satellites flying at 1,100 km in groups of 3, separated by about 100km (5°)," Legault explained to Universe Today.

In this video are two different 'triplets' of these satellites taken with Legault's Sony A7s. First you'll see the Yoagan 16 A/B/C passing through the sky field that includes M31, the Pleiades, the Hyades, the Orion nebula. Second is Yaogan 20 A/B/C passing over M31 just before disappearing in the shadow of the Earth.

"The magnitude of Yaogans is about 5, barely visible to the naked eye," Legault said via email. "But sometimes they flare, as you can see in the beginning of the movie."

The fine tracking Legault did of these objects is incredible, along with the detail of the stars and deep-sky objects. ?

Legault used

Calsky

– his go-to source for observing – to calculate where he would need to be to see these satellites crossing near the famous deep-sky objects. He drove about 100 km west of his home in Paris to capture this unique video.

According to

Robert Christy at zarya.info

, the Yaogan satellites are imaging satellites "with a government or military purpose. Some seem to carry optical payloads and others carry radar. There are also some launches into orbits very like the US NOSS satellites."

Christy lists the tasks of these satellites as imaging for remote sensing for military or government photo-reconnaissance including for "natural resources surveys and, possibly, intelligence gathering. Specific tasks include land survey, crop yield assessment, and input to disaster monitoring and prevention plans."

There have been 24 launches of these satellites since 2006, with one launching as recently as November 20, 2014. Four of the launches were for "triplets" of these satellites.

Find out more about these satellites at

zarya.info

.

As always, you can see more of Legault's find astrophotgraphy at

his website.

See our review of his newly translated book "Astrophotography"

here.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com