Observations 30 Oct 2005: ------------------------------- 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 ~60mm focal length f/2.8 lens,integrating for 64 frames which is equivalent to an 1.28 seconds. Field of view 5.35 x 4.25 degrees and showing stars down to about magnitude +9.5 - a nice lens for searching for bright unknowns. Site 0433 : Longitude 18.51294 deg East, Latitude 33.94058 deg S, Elevation 10 metres - situated in Pinelands (Cape Town), South Africa 24680 96 072A 0433 F 20051030205949900 56 15 1121300-742649 39 24680 96 072A 0433 F 20051030205951100 56 15 1121180-743609 39 24680 96 072A 0433 F 20051030205952400 56 15 1120560-744614 39 24680 96 072A 0433 F 20051030205956400 56 15 1120220-751350 39 24680 96 072A 0433 F 20051030205957600 56 15 1120040-752530 39 28888 05 042A 0433 F 20051030202553300 56 15 0838524-624637 39 +075 05 28888 05 042A 0433 F 20051030202622700 56 15 0811342-634309 39 +071 05 28888 05 042A 0433 F 20051030202636800 56 15 0756498-640318 39 +069 05 28888 05 042A 0433 F 20051030202650900 56 15 0740489-641735 39 +068 05 28888 05 042A 0433 F 20051030202716500 56 15 0708495-642329 39 +067 05 28888 05 042A 0433 F 20051030202749800 56 15 0622226-634105 39 +050 05 28888 05 042A 0433 F 20051030202809000 56 15 0554120-624216 39 +020 05 28888 05 042A 0433 F 20051030202832000 56 15 0520143-605048 39 +010 05 90027 04 841A 0433 F 20051030191905400 56 15 2302285+361747 39 +100 05 90027 04 841A 0433 F 20051030192628500 56 15 2349183+225117 39 +090 05 90027 04 841A 0433 F 20051030193636500 56 15 0048225+051700 39 +075 05 90027 04 841A 0433 F 20051030194558400 56 15 0319489-285556 39 +065 05 25724 99 023A 0433 F 20051030175856400 56 15 2207239+254642 39 +035 05 25724 99 023A 0433 F 20051030175927200 56 15 2227483+263332 39 +035 05 25744 99 028A 0433 F 20051030185636400 56 15 2325567+270752 39 +050 05 Strays seen: ------------- Adeos Rocket 24279 96 046C 0433 F 20051030202237500 56 15 0900112-625932 39 +051 05 24279 96 046C 0433 F 20051030202312100 56 15 0828221-644504 39 +050 05 Cosmos 1743 16719 86 034A 0433 F 20051030175333800 56 15 2145267+171143 39 +030 05 Cosmos 2037 20196 89 068A 0433 F 20051030180449700 56 15 2220203+253249 39 +070 05 Meteor 2-19 20670 90 057A 0433 F 20051030181216500 56 15 2221447+265356 39 +057 05 Cosmos 1875 rocket 18340 87 074G 0433 F 20051030181444900 56 15 2221035+270434 39 +060 05 Symphonie 2 rocket 08133 75 077B 0433 F 20051030181755700 56 15 2228360+263613 39 +040 05 ETS 7 25064 97 074B 0433 F 20051030182539100 56 15 2237456+254011 39 +030 05 Essa 5 02757 67 036A 0433 F 20051030184100700 56 15 2248441+272001 39 +075 05 Notes: -------- (1) Not a good night due to cirrus ahead of a cold front - eventually forced me to stop as all I could see then was Mars. (2) Using Teds latest elements for 96072A - USA 129 - I DID not see the satellite. This was not unexpected as the mean motion is still very uncertain. I then did a planar search for the next pass and got the observations reported above for #24680. Conditions were very poor and I only saw it for a few seconds before cirrus "erased" the satellite. I do not find a predicted satellite in this area at the time so suspect USA 129. (3) Excellant track on USA 186, running very close to Teds latest orbit. Did a lovely flare to about magnitude +1 before starting to fade. (4) Adeos rocket was seen a few minutes before USA 186 - thought it might have been USA 186 but USA 186 arrived on time about 3 minutes later. (5) The strays were observed by "accident". When I am not actively tracking the camera is parked pointing in a random direction, a note is made of the azimuth and elevation and the system left unattended whilst the DVD recorder records the area in question. A program is later run using the DVD recorder which "sums" all the activity taking place over a period of 1 minute as a single composite image and I then flip through each 1 minute image recorded looking for satellite trails which are then subsequently identified. In this way I can examine (say) an hours recording in about 2-3 minutes. The program used is very sensitive and shows all traces that are about 2 to 3 pixel counts above the average background noise and the images are composited at 25 frames per second, so approximately 1530 frames per composite image. The program was originally developed for detecting meteors. (6) No observing tonight - 31 Oct - the cold front is here. Cheers Greg ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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