Observations 28 Mar and 03 April 2008:
-----------------------------------------------
Cosatrak 1 (Computerised satellite Tracking System).
MINTRON low light level CCD surveillance camera (0.005 lux typical
in non integration mode) and 0.00005 lux in STARLIGHT mode with 128
frame integration.
Used with 200mm focal length f/2.8 lens,integrating for 128 frames
which is equivalent to a max exposure of 2.58 seconds per image.
Site 0433 : Longitude 18.51294 deg East, Latitude 33.94058 deg S,
Elevation 10 metres - situated in Pinelands (Cape Town), South Africa
Unknown/s?
============
Whilst doing shadow entry observations of geostationary satellites for
the southern hemisphere flare season I found possibly one or two
satellites not in the SPACETRACK database.
One or both may be #96041 aka UI041 in the ESA#10 database
50mm f/1.8 lens
96041 96 541A 0433 G 20080328202226800 56 15 1158070+073021 39 +070 05
96041 96 541A 0433 G 20080328202814800 56 15 1203560+071852 39 +070 05
96041 96 541A 0433 G 20080328203501300 56 15 1210360+070249 39 +070 05
96041 96 541A 0433 G 20080328204021800 56 15 1216060+065100 39 +070 05
200mm f/2.8 lens same satellite??????? as above
96041 96 541A 0433 G 20080403204019500 56 15 1239360+055933 39 +065 05
96041 96 541A 0433 G 20080403204224600 56 15 1241410+055521 39 +065 05
96041 96 541A 0433 G 20080403204343000 56 15 1242590+055249 39 +065 05
I found the satellite on the 3 April 2008 and measured it which shows that
it has a relatively high inclination. I then recalled that on the 28 March
I had used a 50mm focal length lens and done a 4 hour track on the Clarke
belt but when I came to analyse it on the 29 March I found that the image
scale and magnitude penetration was not good enough for the purpose
required. I found the satellite on this DVD recording and measured as
above.
Southern hemisphere geosat flare observations:
===============================================
3 April 2008 all times UT, RA/Dec J2000
GSAT2 03018A #27807 20h25m52sUT RA12h43m39s Dec+05d25'23"
SYRACUSE 3A 05041B #28885 20h30m09sUT RA12h43m27s Dec+05d26'04"
AFRISAT1 96002B #23765 20h35m49sUT RA12h44m24s Dec+05d58'26"
INTELSAT 12 00068A #26590 20h39m00sUT RA12h43m14s Dec+05d25'11"
UNKNOWN 96041? 20h43m43sUT RA12h42m59s Dec+05d52'49"
TURKSAT 1C 96040B #23949 20h48m56sUT RA12h41m56s Dec+05d28'55"
NIGCOMSAT 1 07018A #31395 20h49m33sUT RA12h40m22s Dec+05d25'40"
TURKSAT 2A 01002A #26666 20h49m47sUT RA12h40m33s Dec+05d31'06"
EXPRESS AM1 04043A #28463 20h58m25sUT RA12h40m21s Dec+05d28'02"
Notes:
==========
(1) I started observing shortly before 18h UT when the first observable
flare might be seen above a nearby roof. However I dont only have bad
weather to compete with but I have to also suffer from living in a
third world country going down the drain. We are now subject to power
cuts three times a week-sundays excluded, for two hours at a time,
between 1800UT and 2000UT which effectively makes LEO satellite
observing virtually impossible in the evening. This situation is
going to last for the next four months, but power cuts are expected
to continue until at least the year 2013 due to a colossal blunder
made by the current government in deciding a few years back not to
build power stations- now we have insufficient power for the country!
These power cuts will take place even if there is sufficient power
available. Households also have to cut their electricity consumption
by 10% or be fined!! Needless to say the officials responsible for
this major **** up get enormous annual bonuses - roughly 5x the
capital I had to retire on - as you can guess I and MANY others
are fuming about the whole business.
Anyway I was unable to do anything until after the power came back
on at 20hrs UT when I was finally stopped by cloudy weather- I cant
win...
A current "joke" doing the rounds is
year 1948 : South Africa had white power
year 1994 : South Africa had black power
year 2008 : South Africa has no power...
Cheers
Greg
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