Optical 24 Jan 2014

From: Greg Roberts (grr@telkomsa.net)
Date: Sat Jan 25 2014 - 11:47:21 UTC

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    Observations 24 JAN 2014
    ------------------------------------
    
    Cosatrak 1 (Computerised satellite Tracking System).
    
    First try of 8 inch f/3.67 reflector. This time used a DSLR
    camera for the tests but will be replaced by the usual CCD
    camera in future.
    
    FOV 1.75 X 1.15 degrees. Mag +14 stars using normal technique
    so should get fainter with the CCD camera - maybe 2 magnitudes ?
    
    Images processed and measured manually.
    
    Site 0433 : Longitude 18.51294 deg East, Latitude -33.94058 deg,
    Elevation 10 metres-situated in Pinelands (Cape Town),South Africa
    
    FOR CLASSFD.TLE:
    ---------------------------
    33490 09 001A   0433 F 20140124193626000 18 15 0702177+092912 39
    33490 09 001A   0433 F 20140124193738000 18 15 0703324+092913 39
    33490 09 001A   0433 F 20140124194006000 18 15 0706012+092939 39
    35815 09 047A   0433 F 20140124194528000 18 15 0727315+052845 39
    35815 09 047A   0433 F 20140124194642000 18 15 0728458+052838 39
    35815 09 047A   0433 F 20140124194736000 18 15 0729380+052842 39
    
    STRAYS:
    -----------
    03691 69 013A   0433 F 20140124194006000 18 15 0659180+092134 39
    25673 99 018A   0433 F 20140124194528000 18 15 0728460+055629 39
    26766 01 019A   0433 F 20140124194528000 18 15 0726382+052520 39
    27825 03 026A   0433 F 20140124194006000 18 15 0701550+093326 39
    28885 05 041B   0433 F 20140124194528000 18 15 0724194+052534 39
    38245 12 016A   0433 F 20140124194528000 18 15 0726588+052516 39
    
    
    NOTES:
    ---------
    (1) Part of experiments to find a deeper penetrating system to get
        fainter than mag +15. Options available are 8 inch f/3.7, 10
        inch f/3.5 and 10 inch f/4.7 - first one on the old CoSaTrak
        mounting , whilst 10 inch on altazimuth mount with digital
        encoders reading to 0.1 degrees.
    
    (2) Am impressed with the performance of the 8-inch in terms of
        magnitude gain and image quality ( eg no vignetting).
    
    Cheers
    Greg
    
    
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