Optical 04 Oct 2011

From: Greg Roberts (grr@telkomsa.net)
Date: Wed Oct 05 2011 - 09:36:41 UTC

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    Observations 04 Oct 2011
    ----------------------------
    
    Cosatrak 1 (Computerised satellite Tracking System).
    Camera mount now carries two systems that can be operated
    together as two totally different sytems and computers used.
    Generally the DSI Pro II camera will be used for high altitude
    slow moving objects. Tests seem to indicate that its sensitivity
    is comparable to the MINTRON ( possibly better) but as its not
    possible (?) to time stamp to better than 1 second accuracy the
    time resolution is not good enough for LEO objects.
    
    Meade DSI Pro monochrome CCD camera integration times of 05 sec
    min to 30 seconds maximum depending on brightness of sky in
    particular area.No image processing done but dark field applied.
    Used with 102mm aperture f/2.56 refractor ,field of view 84 x 63
    arc minutes. Can get to magnitude 13 or so in less than 20 seconds
    exposure.
    Exposure time to nearest second inserted into image FITS header
    from PC clock which is checked against GPS signal.
    Images processed and automatically reduced using APEX.
    
    Site 0433 : Longitude 18.51294 deg East, Latitude -33.94058 deg,
    Elevation 10 metres-situated in Pinelands (Cape Town),South Africa
    
    
    FOR CLASSIFIED.TLE:
    --------------------------------
    MILSTAR 5
    27168 02 001A   0433 G 20111004180726000 16 15 2105447+002949 28  +095 05
    DSP F23
    32287 07 054A   0433 G 20111004181059000 16 15 1931567+060040 28  +110 05
    MENTOR 4
    33490 09 001A   0433 G 20111004173554000 16 15 2137339+025915 28  +080 05
    PAN
    35815 09 047A   0433 G 20111004180238000 16 15 2142028+052016 28  +105 05
    
    STRAYS SEEN:
    ---------------------
    THURAYA 2
    27825 03 026A   0433 G 20111004173554000 16 15 2138021+025355 28  +100 05
    HELLAS SAT 2
    27811 03 020A   0433 G 20111004180238000 16 15 2141501+052321 28
    ARIANE 5 R/B range 36293 kms
    31308 07 001C   0433 G 20111004175618000 16 15 2222138-005235 28
    KA SAT
    37258 10 069A   0433 G 20111004181059000 16 15 1933191+052753 28 
    
    
    
    NOTES:
    ----------
    
    (1) Short session as I was entertaining two important visitors who wanted
    to see how I tracked. Of course just about everything possible went wrong!
    
    (2) VORTEX 6 not seen - visitors and I thought we had eventually found it
    after a search but on reducing the image found to be Ariane 5 rocket body,
    so where was VORTEX 6 ? This is an easy relatively bright satellite but
    was not in area predicted. Plan to observe tonight to try and find it.
    
    (3) Usual confusion - which is Pan and which is Hellas Sat 2 as close
    together.
    
    Cheers
    Greg
    
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