West Coast SiriusXM Satellites

In the past when I photographed SiriusXM satellites I chose the east coast satellites because they are higher in my sky. Tonight I tried to see the west coast satellites, and even though they’re lower in the sky I was able to find them pretty easily.

Interestingly I have now caught XM-5 on the east coast and the west coast! I also got the ill-fated SXM-7 satellite.

To take these images I used my 10” dobsonian telescope with a 2x focal reducer and ZWO ASI190MC camera. These satellites are so dim it’s always difficult to find the best settings, in this case I used 2 second shutter speed and 400 gain.

This is XM-4 and XM-5 satellites co-located at 115W longitude (~115.1W).

The next image is of SXM-7. SXM-7 and SXM-8 were launched in 2021 but SXM-7 failed in orbit soon after launch.