Hi all...
A few weeks ago, Tom Wagner sent an inquiry about Vanguard 1, the oldest
artificial satellite still in orbit.
Tom asked (approximate quote):
"Has anyone on the list seen Vanguard 1 lately? I've tried but cannot see it
here at 42N. Never has a good amount of altitude above horizon for me."
Yes indeed! Vanguard 1 is my favorite satellite, because of its history, and
my 6th-grade experience of building a model of it out of a Cuban coconut
castanet, some burnt out radio tubes, soda straws, toy mirrors stolen from my
sister, and aluminum foil.
Over the past 8 years, I've looked for Vanguard 1 on 12 occasions, and have
seen it 8 times. Below are Quicksat predicted times (UTC), altitude and
azimuth, and magnitude, followed by my observations. All observations were
with a 12-inch f/4 reflector, using a 63x Erfle eyepiece with a field of 1
degree.
VANGUARD 1
39.877 105.391 8950 Coal Creek Canyon, CO 2000 14.5 5 F F F T F
Year/Mo/Dy UTC Al AziC Mag
1995/10/20 0204 64 197C 13.2 Vanguard 1 mag. 11-14
1995/12/27 0255 50 155C 13.2 Vanguard 1 flsh mag. 12
1996/01/12 0232 73 190C 13.5 Vanguard 1 flsh mag. 10
1996/01/15 0349 54 208C 13.6 Vanguard 1 flsh mag. 11
1996/04/06 0326 74 189C 13.7 Vanguard 1 mag. 12-13
1998/03/15 0331 70 179C 12.5 Vanguard 1 mag. 12.0 for 2 seconds. range=1463
1998/03/25 0258 62 200C 13.4 Vanguard 1 not seen. range=1923
1998/05/26 0819 59 182C 11.3 Vanguard 1 mag. 11-12, flsh mag. 10, few flsh
mag. 9. range=883
1999/03/14 0427 46 205C 13.2 Vanguard 1 not seen. range=1882
1999/05/18 0830 73 189C 13.4 Vanguard 1 not seen. range=2257
1999/09/07 0322 32 193C 11.5 Vanguard 1 not seen. range=766
2003/04/27 0451 63 205C 13.7 Vanguard 1 mag. 12 for ~1/2 sec. range=2541
Vanguard 1 is a rather small object, as Mr. Khrushchev noted at the time, and
its normal magnitude is probably about 14 or 15. However, it does have small
(about the size of those mirrors I took from my sister's doll box) but
specularly reflecting solar panels, and if you're lucky, you'll catch a
reflection from one of those. Most of my observations have this object either
flashing or briefly rising to about magnitude 10 or 12, and otherwise
invisible. On a couple of occasions (1995 Oct. 10 and 1998 May 26) I was able
to hand-track the satellite with the 12-inch, and catch several flashes or
brightenings. Other times I was just lucky enough to have the object brighten
within the field of view (which is why a wide-field eyepiece is good).
I'm at latitude 40 North, and I think Tom at 42 North should have plenty of
high passes. Vanguard 1 is in a high, fairly elliptical, 34-degree inclined
orbit, You can see passes as high as 74 degrees in the above list, and ranges
on these high passes varying from 766 miles to 2541 miles.
Cheers, Rich Keen, Coal Creek Canyon, Colorado, USA (39.877N, 105.391W, elevation 2728m)
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