Optical 06 August 2008

From: Greg Roberts (grr@telkomsa.net)
Date: Thu Aug 07 2008 - 13:43:47 UTC

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    Observations 06 Aug 2008:
    --------------------------------
    
    Cosatrak 1 (Computerised satellite Tracking System).
    Meade DSI Pro II Monochrome CCD camera without filters.
    using integration times of 20 sec min to 60 seconds maximum
    depending on brightness of sky in particular area.No image
    processing done, no dark or flat fields applied.
    
    Used with 200mm focal length f/2.8 Nikkon telephoto lens,
    field of view 1.88 x 1.40 degrees.
    
    
    Site 0433 : Longitude 18.51294 deg East, Latitude  33.94058 deg S,
    Elevation 10 metres-situated in Pinelands (Cape Town),South Africa
    
    
    For CLASSFD.TLE:
    -----------------------
    
    25336 98 029A   0433 F 20080806170917000 56 15 1722500-022814 39
    25336 98 029A   0433 F 20080806171500000 56 15 1728390-023314 39
    27168 02 001A   0433 F 20080806172223000 56 15 1630500+042037 39
    27168 02 001A   0433 F 20080806172854000 56 15 1637210+041649 39
    15543 85 010B   0433 F 20080806173424000 56 15 1949310-115047 39
    15543 85 010B   0433 F 20080806173951000 56 15 1955180-115210 39
    05851 72 010A   0433 F 20080806174729000 56 15 2019050-023318 39
    05851 72 010A   0433 F 20080806174934000 56 15 2021080-022736 39
    05204 71 039A   0433 F 20080806180034000 56 15 2037260+010421 39
    05204 71 039A   0433 F 20080806180400000 56 15 2041000+011404 39
    28117 03 057A   0433 F 20080806181140000 56 15 2022050+034332 39
    28117 03 057A   0433 F 20080806181511000 56 15 2025360+034507 39
    25967 99 063A   0433 F 20080806181140000 56 15 2026380+031015 39
    25967 99 063A   0433 F 20080806181511000 56 15 2030080+031041 39
    26880 01 033A   0433 F 20080806184725000 56 15 2051080+020302 39
    26880 01 033A   0433 F 20080806185242000 56 15 2056270+020016 39
    27691 03 008A   0433 F 20080806190039000 56 15 2022360+051510 39
    27691 03 008A   0433 F 20080806190656000 56 15 2028400+051534 39
    22915 93 074A   0433 F 20080806191118000 56 15 2019330+015336 39
    22915 93 074A   0433 F 20080806191846000 56 15 2026410+014744 39
    32287 07 054A   0433 F 20080806193653000 56 15 1705030+044545 39
    32287 07 054A   0433 F 20080806194208000 56 15 1710190+045051 39
    26635 00 080A   0433 F 20080806195835000 56 15 1605060+042329 39
    26635 00 080A   0433 F 20080806200618000 56 15 1612480+041853 39
    10941 78 058A   0433 F 20080806202104000 56 15 1631070-022912 39
    10941 78 058A   0433 F 20080806202510000 56 15 1635060-024030 39
    08916 76 059A   0433 F 20080806203140000 56 15 1657090-094409 39
    08916 76 059A   0433 F 20080806203545000 56 15 1701250-094130 39
    90066 05 667A   0433 F 20080806203957000 56 15 1619350+045323 39
    90066 05 667A   0433 F 20080806204402000 56 15 1623400+044734 39
    20253 89 077A   0433 F 20080806210512000 56 15 1645490+003841 39
    20253 89 077A   0433 F 20080806211053000 56 15 1651290+002624 39
    23967 96 042A   0433 F 20080806212954000 56 15 1643320+031644 39
    23967 96 042A   0433 F 20080806213319000 56 15 1646590+031351 39
    29250 06 027B   0433 F 20080806214957000 56 15 1956220+432003 39
    29250 06 027B   0433 F 20080806215031000 56 15 1958030+434225 39
    
    Strays seen:
    ---------------
    
    SL-12 R/B(2) geostationary orbit, steady
    26939 01 045D   0433 F 20080806184725000 56 15 2052040+010513 39
    26939 01 045D   0433 F 20080806185242000 56 15 2057250+010029 39
    Intelsat 904  geostationary orbit, steady
    27380 02 007A   0433 F 20080806190039000 56 15 2023220+051319 39
    27380 02 007A   0433 F 20080806190659000 56 15 2029250+051331 39
    Meteosat 7 geostationary orbit
    24932 97 049B   0433 F 20080806191846000 56 15 2029280+013520 39
    Insat 2C geostationary orbit
    23731 95 067B   0433 F 20080806194208000 56 15 1707270+044514 39
    Express 3A geostationary orbit
    26378 00 031A   0433 F 20080806201121000 56 15 1612590+052702 39
    Luch geostationary orbit, variable
    23426 94 082A   0433 F 20080806203957000 56 15 1619180+040249 39
    23426 94 082A   0433 F 20080806204402000 56 15 1623220+035202 39
    Morelos 2 geostationary orbit
    16274 85 109B   0433 F 20080806212954000 56 15 1641010+030114 39
    
    Unknown observed- no obvious match to anything.
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    00001 08 219MEO 0433 F 20080806172233000 56 15 1628090+044620 39  +100 05
    00001 08 219MEO 0433 F 20080806172235000 56 15 1628140+044638 39  +100 05
    00001 08 219MEO 0433 F 20080806172245000 56 15 1629250+045037 39  +100 05
    00001 08 219MEO 0433 F 20080806172246000 56 15 1629300+045127 39  +100 05
    00001 08 219MEO 0433 F 20080806172256000 56 15 1630400+045526 39  +100 05
    
    Notes:
    -------
    (1) Lot of cloud drifting around, very heavy humidity.
    
    (2) First use of my new CCD camera for satellite work and WHAT an
    improvement on using video! Obviously its not really suitable for
    LEO satellite tracking,  but for high altitude stuff its the answer.
    I still have a few minor problems to solve, the main one being time.
    With video one can time-stamp the individual video frames and get better
    than 0.1 second accuracy . However with a conventional CCD camera,such
    as the latest addition, this cannot be done. The time of the beginning of
    the exposure is noted in the FITS header and the time is read from the
    computer clock,so it is necessary to make sure the PC clock is accurate
    to at least 1 second-if connected to the internet this is straight-forward
    but my tracking computers are NOT so for the present time is accurate to
    within a second- I checked the pc clock before and after the tracking
    session and it had not drifted, but I dont think its good enough, at
    this stage, for better than +/- 1 second. Will be interesting to see
    how the observation of #29250 checks out as the range was about 14000
    kilometres.
    
    (3) No sign of VORTEC B (90055), DSCS3-12 (26575) nor
    MERCURY 1 (94054A) at predicted locations . I did not search for
    them so they may have just been outside the field of view or have
    moved. I think 90055 has been missing a long time now and
    MERCURY 1 is moved quite frequently.
    
    Cheers
    Greg
    
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