Observations 10 SEPT 2010 ------------------------------- 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. Meade DSI Pro II Monochrome CCD camera without filters. using integration times of 5 sec min to 25 seconds maximum depending on brightness of sky in particular area.No image processing done, but some done automatically in the auto reduction software. Used with 4 inch SKYWATCHER refractor- model 1025 - fitted with home made focal reducer to give an f/2.56 system. Image scale is 6.56 arc sec/pixel and field of view 84.8 x 63.2 arc minutes. Shows 15th magnitude stars in real time with reasonably good conditions. Exposure time to nearest second inserted into image FITS header from PC clock which is automatically checked every minute against GPS signal. Site 0433 : Longitude 18.51294 deg East, Latitude -33.94058 deg, Elevation 10 metres-situated in Pinelands (Cape Town),South Africa FOR CLASSFD.TLE: ================== MITEX NRL 29242 06 024C 0433 G 20100910215131000 16 15 1940554+023137 87 29242 06 024C 0433 G 20100910215250000 16 15 1942174+023044 28 AEHF 1 36868 10 039A 0433 G 20100910213642000 16 25 1934216+021990 39 36868 10 039A 0433 G 20100910213937000 16 15 1935216+022508 88 36868 10 039A 0433 G 20100910214818000 16 15 1938429+024034 38 36868 10 039A 0433 G 20100910215655000 16 15 1941448+025606 69 36868 10 039A 0433 G 20100910215805000 16 15 1942074+025816 38 36868 10 039A 0433 G 20100910215923000 16 15 1942359+030031 19 36868 10 039A 0433 G 20100910221609500 16 15 1948174+032926 78 36868 10 039A 0433 G 20100910221740500 16 15 1948524+033206 19 36868 10 039A 0433 G 20100910221843500 16 15 1949128+033358 68 36868 10 039A 0433 G 20100910222727500 16 25 1952165+034834 38 36868 10 039A 0433 G 20100910222839500 16 15 1952311+035024 58 36868 10 039A 0433 G 20100910222929500 16 15 1952496+035143 29 AEHF1 R 36869 10 039B 0433 G 20100910171919000 16 15 1917305-022059 28 36869 10 039B 0433 G 20100910172012000 16 15 1917599-021830 28 36869 10 039B 0433 G 20100910172100000 16 15 1918264-021618 28 36869 10 039B 0433 G 20100910172154000 16 15 1918551-021346 18 36869 10 039B 0433 G 20100910172430000 16 15 1920191-020638 18 36869 10 039B 0433 G 20100910172631000 16 15 1921227-020109 28 STRAY SEEN: ============= RADUGA 14 25642 99 010A 0433 G 20100910172012000 16 15 1918521-022944 28 25642 99 010A 0433 G 20100910172100000 16 15 1919402-023124 28 25642 99 010A 0433 G 20100910172154000 16 15 1920340-023325 18 NOTES: -------- (1) Had to search for AEHF 1 - rather difficult - near apogee so faint and mostly invisible except for about 10% of its visibility cycle when it reached perhaps magnitude +14 for perhaps 30 seconds. Things were further complicated in that it was trailing almost parallel to star trails so had to use exposures of 35 to 40 seconds to show the divergence. Then of course all this happened in the brightest part of the Milky Way so LOTS of stars sometimes covering part of the satellite trail so had to reject the image!! (2) More to come on other satellites seen during the search. Cheers Greg _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
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