
Eye in the Sky - jmstfv
https://www.1843magazine.com/culture/the-daily/eye-in-the-sky
======
EdwinHoksberg
The text at the last image doesn't seem right, I think the stripes are stars
and the little dots are geostationary satellites. If the photographer took a
fixed long exposure the earth would rotate and the stars would move against
the sky, but because the satellites are in a geostationary orbit they move
with the earth's rotation so it looks like they don't move at all.

~~~
euroclydon
Spy satellites aren't geostationary, they're on a polar orbit. There's a bunch
of them staggered out to allow photos of anywhere within some max time
interval.

~~~
EdwinHoksberg
Yes you would be correct if we were talking about imaging satellites, but
communication spy satellites would be in geostationary orbit :)

~~~
HarryHirsch
Not necessarily, the Molniya orbit is a thing. (Most wars these days are
fought at low latitude, though, so this orbital arrangement has cone out of
fashion, except to supply TV signal to Siberia.)

~~~
kurthr
TIL - The Tundra (and Molniya) orbits are really interesting highly eccentric
geosync (demigeosync) orbits that spend most of their time at high inclination
perigee to allow clear line of sight transmission above 1 (or 2 locations) on
Earth. This is useful since geostationary satellites are low angle at high
latitudes and more difficult to launch. They are almost always at 63 degrees
to avoid orbit perturbation due to gravitational anomalies, but still have to
pass through the Van Allen radiation belts 2 (or 4) times per day.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tundra_orbit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tundra_orbit)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molniya_orbit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molniya_orbit)

------
mikejb
At the 30c3, Trevor Paglen gave a talk about his work, where he also goes into
details or it [1]. I found it highly interesting and can only recommend it.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j56s46e97Lo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j56s46e97Lo)

------
rdtsc
> National Reconnaissance Office, Chantilly, Virginia (2014)

I am always surprised how so few people even know this exists. It has a $10B
budget on par with NSA and CIA.

I like and am creeped out by their mission patches:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_launches](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_launches)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_launches#/media/Fi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_launches#/media/File:Lacrosse5_M_patch.jpg)
(a crazy gorilla with a US flag in hand)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_launches#/media/Fi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_launches#/media/File:Nrol-39.jpg)
(giant octopus devouring Earth)

~~~
grasshopperpurp
_I like and am creeped out by their mission patches_

Me too! My favorite:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_launches#/media/Fi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_launches#/media/File:NROL10_USA155_patch.jpg)

------
madaxe_again
PAN isn't short for panopticon, it's short for Palladium at Night.

There's no consensus on which agency operates it (potentially NRO but this may
not be the case) or what it's for.

~~~
inDigiNeous
Pan is also the god of wild, shepherds and flocks in greek mythology
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_(god)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_\(god\))).
Which would suite perfectly for watching over the people, who many of those in
power just think as sheep who can be controlled.

If you do any research into this subject, you will find many references to
different gods, mythologies and other things that are starting to sound like
black magic. Just for some examples, see these now famous psyops patches and
the symbology used in them:
[https://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/top-10-most-
sinis...](https://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/top-10-most-sinister-
psyops-mission-patches/)

------
jgrahamc
In about 2002 I lay in my back garden in the night in Palo Alto and saw (naked
eye) three satellites flying in formation. I believe it was this:
[http://www.satobs.org/noss.html#NOSS3](http://www.satobs.org/noss.html#NOSS3)

~~~
danielharrison
I saw the same thing in the late 90s. Never knew what it was until just now.

------
kwoff
Eye in the Sky. Now I have a worm in the ear, thanks a lot! :P

------
magnat
"Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website." with "position:
fixed" and 100% size covering perfectly rendered article body. This is
ridiculous.

~~~
tombrossman
Add the filter "www.1843magazine.com###seckit-noscript-tag" (minus the quotes)
in ublock or another ad-blocker and it won't bother you again. Page works
perfectly after that for me.

~~~
gvb
Or right-click / inspect element and kill (overtype) the tag

<div id="seckit-noscript-tag">

