Long-time SeeSat-L contributor Vladimir Agapov has contacted me and confirmed
that positional observations made by hobbyists will be highly useful to the
Cosmos 1 project, stating, "we would be grateful to all observers who will
provide accurate positional observations for the sail."
The Russian company "Space Informatics and Analytical Systems JSC" ("KIA
Systems") has developed various software for measurements processing, catalogue
maintenance etc., and is responsible for ballistic and navigation support of the
Solar Sail flight, under contract to Lavochkin Association, which developed and
produced the spacecraft for the Planetary Society.
KIA Systems has created a special e-mail account, to which I will forward all
positional observations that I receive via SeeSat-L or directly, including each
observer's name, station name and coordinates.
Observations may be reported in any of our three commonly used formats:
http://www.satobs.org/position/posn_formats.html
During the first day after launch, it would be highly desirable to report
observations as soon as possible. The spacecraft will not have deployed its sail
yet, so it will be faint, making early observation particularly challenging. Our
normal speed of reporting is likely to be sufficient during the remainder of the
mission.
A reminder to interested non-positional observers: you can participate by making
visual magnitude measurements or photographs of the sail. See my earlier post
for links to details on how to observe and submit reports to the project:
http://satobs.org/seesat/Jun-2005/0116.html
Scheduled Launch Time: June 21, 2005 at 19:46:09 UTC
Ted Molczan
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