  Context. The accuracy of photometric calibration has gradually become a
limiting factor in various fields of astronomy, limiting the scientific output
of a host of research. Calibration using artificial light sources in low earth
orbit remains largely unexplored. Aims. We aim to demonstrate that photometric
calibration using light sources in low earth orbit is a viable and competitive
alternative/complement to current calibration techniques, and explore the
associated ideas and basic theory. Methods. We present the publicly-available
Python code Streaktools as a means to simulate and perform photometric
calibration using real and simulated light streaks. We use Streaktools to
perform `pill' aperture photometry on 131 simulated streaks, and MCMC-based PSF
model-fitting photometry on 425 simulated streaks in an attempt to recover the
magnitude zeropoint of a real exposure of the DECam instrument on the Blanco 4m
telescope. Results. We show that calibration using pill photometry is too
inaccurate to be useful, but that PSF photometry is able to produce unbiased
and accurate ($1\sigma$ error = 3.4mmag) estimates of the zeropoint of a real
image in a realistic scenario, with a reasonable light source.
