Optical 25 March 2017 OTV4 recovered

From: Greg Roberts via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2017 23:29:31 +0200
Observations 25 March 2017
---------------------------------------

Cosatrak 1 (Computerised satellite Tracking System).

MINTRON 12V1-EX video camera ,exposure 1.98 seconds,
640 x 480 pixels.

Used with 25mm F/1.4 lens. Field of view about 12 x 15 degrees.

Images processed used nova.astrometry.net

Site 0433 : Longitude 18.5124 deg East, Latitude -33.9406 deg,
Elevation 9 metres - situated in Pinelands (Cape Town),South Africa

FOR CLASSFD.TLE:
------------------------
40651 15 025A   0433 F 20170325173556155 16 15 0412355-705634 28
40651 15 025A   0433 F 20170325173558874 16 15 0434436-724557 28
40651 15 025A   0433 F 20170325173602233 16 15 0507429-744452 28
40651 15 025A   0433 F 20170325173605264 16 15 0545484-761452 28
40651 15 025A   0433 F 20170325173609514 16 15 0647460-773120 28

40651 15 025A   0433 F 20170325190922030 16 15 0213172-254404 28
40651 15 025A   0433 F 20170325190925795 16 15 0213391-261742 28
40651 15 025A   0433 F 20170325190929545 16 15 0214082-265504 28
40651 15 025A   0433 F 20170325190933311 16 15 0214340-273231 28
40651 15 025A   0433 F 20170325190935233 16 15 0214454-275056 28

REMARKS:
-------------

(1) Orbit plane scan search for OTV4 X-37B using an old MINTRON
video camera.  Two passes were observed.

Video captured at 15 fps, with exposures of 1.98 seconds.Using
the program Virtual dub I did a screen capture when the satellite
moved. This image was then submitted via AstromImageJ to
nova.astrometry.net and coordinates of leading satellite edge read.
The PC clock was controlled by an external GPS unit which
updated the computer time every minute. This time was time stamped
in each video frame and when going through Virtual Dub I stepped
a frame at a time. I still have to check that the time stamping is
  100% correct - I think it is and Mike has not complained (yet).

(2) Whilst this method works - at least appears to do so - the
video image quality is not that great, being rather noisy, and
I am having some problems with ripple in the video which is
probably due to power supply ripple "pick up".
Despite the large number of "hot" pixels nova.astrometry.net
had no problems solving each image.

(3) The other 28 odd satellites seen have still to be identified
and if interesting measured and I will only report if something
worthwhile.

(4) I used the orbit generated by Jon Mikel in mid Feb which

was pretty good !

Cheers
Greg

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Received on Sat Mar 25 2017 - 16:30:29 UTC

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