2025-06-15 22:41:00
Eliot Lambert, Domi Rybova, Greta Weston, and Barbara Mele
Legoli , Italy
Italy
NOAA-19
This is the first time I've picked up a NOAA satellite pass outside of NYC - I'm on a holiday with my close friends in rural Italy and it is unbelievably peaceful here - the dawn chorus/sound of cicadas at night is a far cry from the noise pollution of NYC...we just discovered a new birdsong from a Eurasian Nightjar - and it sounded like clockwork - or a faint chainsaw - it was beautiful and bizarre...I was scared we wouldn't pick up the NOAA 19 signal but after initial static it was so clear and was joyful to introduce my friends to SDR/to this methodology - one of my friends held the antenna for 15 minutes with impressive stillness - and we took a collective pause. And then to experience the decoded APT and the ephemeral cloud formations that emerged!! The last 6 minutes of the transmission were filled with static as seen on the bottom of the image - but I think I like that!
2025-06-11 22:36:57
Tom Lye
Bidston Observatory, Wirral, UK
UK
NOAA-19
A warm and sticky day on Bidston Hill, with high clouds and wind moving in at dusk. I finally got the bits for a V-Dipole antenna and it felt nice to observe a passing satellite with an antenna in my hands.
I also felt a little sad knowing that NOAA18 had stopped signalling last week, so was galvanised to connect with 19 at last! More to come...
2025-05-12 22:13:00
Goownown Growers
The Seaweed Institute
CAST, Helston, Cornwall, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
NOAA-19
The soil at Goonown Growers is a clay loam so the limited rain over the past month has turned the top layer into a solid crust which cracks. This makes it hard to harvest crops like these leeks without damaging the base, but also cultivate the soil using the hand tools we rely on. We have reprioritised setting up irrigation systems as a result of this dry spring to ensure crop are well watered going into summer, reducing the likelihood of crops going to seed earlier or low yields due to plant stress.
Goonown Growers
2025-03-19 18:35:00
The Seaweed Institute and Goonown Growers
CAST, Helston, Cornwall, UK
UK
NOAA-15
Blue skies for installing the ground station the day before this first image uploaded, we worked together with Ray from Goonown. It was warm and springlike in Helston, the magnolias on the streets around CAST had just come into their element.
We thought we knew the aspect of the building but we were surprised by the direction of true north, we had been looking closer to north north west. Spent some time pondering magnetic deviation, unsure if the smart phone compass already accounted for it, wished we had a proper compass with us.
We chatted with Ray about the dry weather and how different it’s for them planting this year compared to last.
A few passers-by already stopped and mused on the new feature - ‘are you installing Sky TV?’.
The computer, sitting under the desk of the buildings office, seemed to be working okay and we were intrigued to see if it would upload. Ruth listened to the audio file before we saw the first image, as the automatic upload didn’t work the first time - a strange sound.
Seeing this first image we couldn’t quite comprehend any features poking through the noise, it wasn’t until someone else pointed out Scotland and Ireland beneath the clouds, upside down. We worried the granite building was obscuring the reading too much but were excited to see if we could trouble shoot the image with help from Sasha and Soph.
The Seaweed Institute
2024-08-26 12:02:33
Sasha Engelmann
Hackney Downs, London, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
NOAA-18
On my way back from the park with my tape measure Yagi, I saw the well-known local character who wears a tracksuit and stands on benches practicing martial arts, every day rain or shine. I smiled and waved hello, and he immediately exclaimed 'there's the aerial!' and for a moment, I think, mis-gendered me, as he called out something like 'oh- a girl!'. He jumped down from his bench and started asking questions- had he seen me before in the park? was I from America? how do I like Hackney? I learned his name is 'Joe' but everyone calls him 'Shaolin Joe' because he practices the Shaolin Arts (martial arts) in public around Hackney and Clapton. I tried to explain why I use my Yagi antenna to capture images from satellites, and he compared my daily satellite passes to the Shaolin Arts... 'meditating with your satellites'. We shook hands and he called out after me 'Have a great day!!' and something like 'good American!'
2024-08-21 12:28:55
Sasha Engelmann
Quercia delle Checche near Pienza, Italy
Italy
NOAA-18
The quercia delle Checche, an approximately 300 year old oak tree and Italy’s first ‘green monument’, is full of dense, perfectly shaped leaves and is apparently thriving despite the dry summer. Planted in the 18th century, the oak was one of the few to survive the rapid landscape changes of the Tuscan countryside as the oak woodland was deforested in favour of agriculture. Rumour has it that Napoleon’s troops stopped to rest in its shade. Numerous local weddings, trysts, rituals and gatherings have occurred under and around its branches. Two large horizontal branches have fallen and now lie like giant bones in the yellow grass. Up close, the dry wood of the branches has whorls and shapes that remind me of Kármán vortex streets caused by wind flowing around islands or mountains. I wonder what events caused the wood to ‘flow’ in this way- what memories does it hold?
2024-07-26 19:58:20
Marlene Wagner and Soph Dyer
Seestadt, Wien, Austria
Austria
NOAA-19
Warm wind, residual heat. U-Bahn, aeroplanes, kids on the beach, gravel under our feet. Long shadows where the city meets the landscape.