Obs 20 Jan 2005 and 24 Jan 2005
---------------------------------------
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.
Unless otherwise stated I will always work in 48 frame integration
mode which is equivelent to a 1 second exposure.
For 20 Jan 2005:
Used with 200mm focal length f/3.5 lens giving a field of view of
about 1.81 x 1.33 degrees and easily showing 12th magnitude stars.
For 24 Jan 2005:
Used with 145mm focal length f/2.5 lens giving a field of view of
about 2.55 x 1.86 degrees and showing 11.5 magnitude stars with full
moon above horizon - looks a good lens. Images smaller than with the
200mm lens.
Site 0433 : Longitude 18.51294 deg East, Latitude 33.94058 deg S,
Elevation 10 metres - situated in Pinelands (Cape Town), South Africa
20 Jan 2005 - much cloud - eventually stopped me:
23947 96 038C 0433 P 20050120191137400 17 15 0354514-531556 39
23947 96 038C 0433 P 20050120191608100 17 15 0517331-403755 39
23947 96 038C 0433 P 20050120191917300 17 15 0611308-260821 39
22519 92 086C 0433 P 20050120195623300 17 15 0005226-354524 39
27168 02 001A 0433 P 20050120204910800 17 15 0458072+073907 39
24 Jan 2005 - much cloud - eventually stopped me:
23947 96 038C 0433 P 20050124192417700 17 15 0136115-535120 39
23947 96 038C 0433 P 20050124192732600 17 15 0221290-510906 39
23947 96 038C 0433 P 20050124193008100 17 15 0300584-472604 39
90013 03 564A 0433 P 20050124194807700 17 15 0711250+130721 39
22519 92 086C 0433 P 20050124202051100 17 15 0502598-753659 39
22519 92 086C 0433 P 20050124202226200 17 15 0550413-754656 39
27938 03 041B 0433 P 20050124203544500 17 15 0941346-003733 39
Strays observed 24 Jab 2005:
23145 95 042D 0433 P 20050124190941200 17 15 0530205-042030 39
23145 95 042D 0433 P 20050124190952700 17 15 0532061-045657 39
23145 95 042D 0433 P 20050124191009100 17 15 0534344-055005 39
17536 87 020B 0433 P 20050124191154700 17 15 0530306-052243 39
22097 92 057B 0433 P 20050124191520100 17 15 0527185-044030 39
Notes:
(1) The past week has been bad for tracking with cloud forming
every night soon after sunset. Making me very frustrated and
pulling out the few remaining strands of hair left!
(2) The first 4 observations on 24th Jan 2005 had poor images due
to the lens not being perfectly focused. Fixed up and now okay.
(3) The strays were observed in a plane scan for #26053 USA 148
rocket which was not succesful due to too much cloud.
(4) I purchased a DVD recorder (PIONEER DVR-320) this morning and
have been learning how to use it -- looks good so far and, weather
permitting, I hope to try it on stellar images tonight.
(5) Milstar 5 (#27168) seems to be quite sensitve to the phase angle.
Early in the evening I cannot see it but from about 1 hour before
local midnight it becomes an easy object. I have not observed it
long enough to say more than this.
(6) In between cloudy spells I did a little exploring of the Clarke
belt and spotted numerous commercial geostationary satellites -
the sky is pretty full up there!
Cheers
Greg
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive:
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 25 2005 - 12:12:55 EST