Per:  https://cse.taylor.edu/thinsat/   this Google-Form is for the purpose of the "Fun of the Find" Mission, if you choose to accept!

We launched our satellite on April 17, 2019, see more info at:  https://tinyurl.com/taylor-university-thinsat  .   And, we're hoping some of the 127,000-200,000 people in the online Astronomy and Astrophotography forums might be able to capture our blinking LED, Morse Code Message, and post here what you read.

So, how do you do it!

1) You'll need a telescope.  Probably one with automated motor mount, such as a CGEM or other.
2) the TLE (Two Line Elements), which are available at:  http://cse.taylor.edu/thinsat/ (see the bottom of the webpage).
3) a beautiful night sky in your part of the world!  :-)
4) and a desire to be one of the few which figures out how to capture this.

What do you win!  Serious bragging rights for having found a tiny "piece of bread" sized satellite, and captured it's flashing LED's.

We aren't exactly sure how to do this as well.  So, if you figure this out, we're willing to learn right along with you!

We think it will require using the TLE to map into your automated telescope software, slew to the right part of the heavens and either get "ahead" of our ThinSATs location, and watch it come through.  Or, better yet, and what we're going to try to do, is put in the TLE and have our scope track the location of the ThinSAT.  And, video taping the ThinSAT, then playing back the video to decode the Morse Coded message.

Part of the fun of the find in this "Fun of the Find" competition is to figure out what the best scope and eyepiece, etc., are the way to find this tiny object flying through ELEO (extreme low earth orbit) at about 17000-18000 miles per hour (27358kmph - 28969kmph).

Other info:  

• The ThinSAT will turn on and operate for a block of minutes (dependent upon the battery charge, so we don't know exactly how long, for each interval), then cycle off, and charge again with its solar panels.  And, once the battery is charged again, the ThinSAT will power-on again.  
• The ThinSAT is also doing some other experiments related to Thermionic Emissions, while it is on, in parallel with the LED blinking.  That other experiment will deplete the battery some.  So, we don't know how long the battery will last.  
• We believe that the satellite will operate "on" for about 10-15 minutes, then off for 50, throughout each hour.  So, the on/off interval will impact when the LED's will be blinking, as the ThinSAT traverses the orbits.
• The ThinSAT's orbit is decaying, because it has no propulsion onboard.  So, we're expecting the ThinSAT to orbit until about April 22, 2019 or even until April 27, 2019 (at the extreme).  

We wish you great success!

----------

The goal, to enter you info here, if you are joining with others to participate in this "Fun of the Find" experiment!

And, you can come back here as well, and enter if you saw the blinking LED's at all  For example, if they passed by your telescope/viewfinder image, but disappeared before you could video tape the Morse Code message.  

And also if you finally decode the message!

We're have students and faculty working to take your incoming Google Form submitted latitude and longitude and link it through a Google API to Google Earth, and have a link where you can click on a rotating Google Earth Globe, and see all the "pins" identifying where each of us is collectively trying to accomplish this experiment!

Most of all, have fun...and join the massive community of Astronomy Lovers, worldwide!

Taylor University Physics, Engineering, and Computer Science

PS:  On our webpage, we'll put the link to the Google Earth images, as/if we get it up and working!

PS2:  Your email address will only receive, if anything, a couple of emails related to this "Fun of the Find" experiment!   It will not be used or sold to anyone for any reason.