Observations 24 Jan 2006:
---------------------------------
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 145mm focal length f/2.5 lens,integrating for 128 frames
which is equivalent to an exposure of 2.56 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
90013 03 564A 0433 G 20060124184047000 56 15 0604468+130906 39 +078 05
21147 91 017A 0433 G 20060124191836300 56 15 2111153-730222 39 +035 05
21147 91 017A 0433 G 20060124192049500 56 15 0532134-525027 39 +018 05
21147 91 017A 0433 G 20060124192300000 56 15 0648007+111413 39 +013 05
13172 82 041C 0433 G 20060124192610800 56 15 2322060-521257 39 +085 05
13172 82 041C 0433 G 20060124192735200 56 15 0044455-221705 39 +075 05
13172 82 041C 0433 G 20060124192830000 56 15 0112174-022856 39 +065 05
24680 96 072A 0433 G 20060124193004700 56 15 1017520-162439 39 +055 05
24680 96 072A 0433 G 20060124193015100 56 15 1013238-145436 39 +053 05
24680 96 072A 0433 G 20060124193035200 56 15 1004503-115448 39 +051 05
90040 05 683A 0433 G 20060124193509200 56 15 0440036+340450 39 +060 05
90040 05 683A 0433 G 20060124193552700 56 15 0516232+340316 39 +055 05
90040 05 683A 0433 G 20060124193646500 56 15 0553417+333347 39 +060 05
90040 05 683A 0433 G 20060124193749200 56 15 0628312+324648 39 +060 05
90040 05 683A 0433 G 20060124193839200 56 15 0650552+320842 39 +065 05
90044 05 859A 0433 G 20060124195124700 56 15 0024262-533029 39 +080 05
90044 05 859A 0433 G 20060124195226300 56 15 2340406-635714 39 +085 05
90044 05 859A 0433 G 20060124195416600 56 15 1959175-750316 39 +080 05
28888 05 042A 0433 G 20060124194718900 56 15 1204505-354933 39 +070 05
28888 05 042A 0433 G 20060124194727700 56 15 1157545-345227 39 +068 05
28888 05 042A 0433 G 20060124194740200 56 15 1148166-332540 39 +065 05
90005 99 804A 0433 G 20060124202525100 56 15 0205135+091805 39 +110 05
90045 05 862B 0433 G 20060124202947200 56 15 0524476+013306 39 +100 05
90045 05 862B 0433 G 20060124203137200 56 15 0529049+014246 39 +100 05
90045 05 862B 0433 G 20060124203438900 56 15 0536234+015915 39 +100 05
20344 89 061D 0433 G 20060124203847100 56 15 1052353-034934 39 +105 05
20344 89 061D 0433 G 20060124204004500 56 15 1057024-054416 39 +100 05
20344 89 061D 0433 G 20060124204103200 56 15 1100248-071004 39 +100 05
90035 05 625A 0433 G 20060124204758100 56 15 0924047+051947 39 +095 05
24680 96 072A 0433 G 20060124210326000 56 15 1752185-755449 39 +060 05
24680 96 072A 0433 G 20060124210456800 56 15 2337532-871429 39 +055 05
24680 96 072A 0433 G 20060124210629000 56 15 0434570-661233 39 +045 05
24680 96 072A 0433 G 20060124210756000 56 15 0447329-345314 39 +039 05
28888 05 042A 0433 G 20060124212506200 56 15 0006367-593649 39 +060 05
28888 05 042A 0433 G 20060124212525000 56 15 0039397-560436 39 +057 05
28888 05 042A 0433 G 20060124212541700 56 15 0105426-520856 39 +055 05
90046 05 864A 0433 G 20060124212733500 56 15 0455422-001858 39 +065 05
90046 05 864A 0433 G 20060124212936400 56 15 0501584-052711 39 +063 05
90046 05 864A 0433 G 20060124213212600 56 15 0511537-134708 39 +060 05
90046 05 864A 0433 G 20060124213347300 56 15 0519420-201025 39 +060 05
90029 05 512A 0433 G 20060124230830600 56 15 0656064+203806 39 +070 05
90041 05 775A 0433 G 20060124231437400 56 15 1010563+101950 39 +090 05
90041 05 775A 0433 G 20060124232659100 56 15 1023036+093101 39 +080 05
99001 06 521A 0433 G 20060124223453800 56 15 0718126+144642 39 +125 05
99001 06 521A 0433 G 20060124223958000 56 15 0720227+142806 39 +125 05
99001 06 521A 0433 G 20060124225005400 56 15 0724403+135211 39 +120 05
99001 06 521A 0433 G 20060124233111100 56 15 0743044+111959 39 +115 05
99001 06 521A 0433 G 20060124233955300 56 15 0747061+104716 39 +115 05
99001 06 521A 0433 G 20060124234245300 56 15 0748321+103549 39 +115 05
Notes:
---------
(1) Rather a long session for me ~ 6 hours but turned out to be worth
while. Prime purpose was to get USA 129 and 186, test out some new
software (for me) and try and observe #99001. All this was achieved
and in addition I was able to observe #90041 and #90029 again.
Getting #90041 again will make Kevin happy - was close to predicted
position and flashing - quite an interesting pattern with double
flashes.
(2) #99001 was discovered by Peter Birtwhistle of the UK during the
night of Jan 20/21 2006 when he observed it for 90 minutes.Using
Bill Gray's ( of GUIDE fame!) freeware program FINDORBIT he
determined the orbit as being eccentric with an inclination of
26 degrees and period about 631 minutes and orbit 428 kms by
35550 kms. He was able to observe it again the following night.
Finding this object was a rather long drawn out procedure as I
tried several times over a period of about 4 hours before finally
seeing it. The element set turned out to be remarkably good with
the satellite where it was supposed to be but this I only knew
when I finally found it!
Looking back through the DVD recordings and knowing where to look
I still cannot find it. This was due to the fact that it was at those
times fainter than magnitude +12.5 - the range was around 38000 kms-
and in addition it was slowly moving so integrating the camera on
the field of view did not help very much . Another problem was
that during the first few tries it was passing through a part of
the sky where the star density is quite high so any faint trail
was swamped by the numerous star trails.
I did two wide area searches without seeing it - I have still to
go through these as several other satellites were seen (hopefully
will do this tomorrow).
Finally managed to find it using the software I was testing after
which it was easy to track it. The software looks like it has a
lot of potential ( it also found #90041 and #90029 ) and it has
the advantage that as it integrates the video frames the image
"develops" on the screen in real time and gets brighter as the
image records fainter magnitudes. At one stage I was integrating
for up to 4 minutes.
For those interested the program is ASTROSNAP V1.3 which is
freeware. I have still to experiment with adding dark frames
and flat fields to the images obtained whilst the program is
running in real time but this should be pretty straight forward.
Sorry for the long story but this might be of interest to other
video/potential video observers.
There is a later version of ASTROSNAP but it is shareware -
besides video observers have no real need for the features it
offers as everything required is in the freeware edition.
(3) Tomorrow I hope to report the strays observed as well as the
results of the area searches carried out.
Cheers
Greg
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