Optical 03 Dec 2008 Part 1

From: Greg Roberts (grr@telkomsa.net)
Date: Thu Dec 04 2008 - 08:00:20 UTC

  • Next message: Greg Roberts: "Optical 03 Dec 2008 Part 2"

    Observations  03 Dec 2008
    ----------------------------
    
    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 sesnitivity
    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.
    
    (1) 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 50mm focal length f/1.8 lens,integrating for 128 fields
    which is equivalent to a max exposure of 2.56 seconds maximum
    per image. Field of view 6.8 x 5.4 degrees.
    Individual frames are video time stamped with GPS derived signal.
    
    (2)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 but dark field applied.
    Used with 200mm focal length f/2.8 Nikkon telephoto lens,
    field of view 1.88 x 1.40 degrees. 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 automatically checked every minute against
    GPS signal.
    
    Site 0433 : Longitude 18.51294 deg East, Latitude  33.94058 deg S,
    Elevation 10 metres-situated in Pinelands (Cape Town),South Africa
    
    
    UNKNOWN:
    --------
    91128 08 838GEO 0433 G 20081203202931000 56 15 0209196+074907 39  +100 05
    91128 08 838GEO 0433 G 20081203203158000 56 15 0211299+075403 39  +100 05
    91128 08 838GEO 0433 G 20081203203311000 56 15 0212335+075622 39  +095 05
    91128 08 838GEO 0433 G 20081203203716000 56 15 0216144+080415 39  +095 05
    91128 08 838GEO 0433 G 20081203204234000 56 15 0220585+081413 39  +095 05
    91128 08 838GEO 0433 G 20081203204941000 56 15 0227209+082741 39  +095 05
    91128 08 838GEO 0433 G 20081203212957000 56 15 0303397+094322 39  +095 05
    91128 08 838GEO 0433 G 20081203213226000 56 15 0305557+094727 39  +095 05
    91128 08 838GEO 0433 G 20081203221631000 56 15 0346199+110204 39  +090 05
    91128 08 838GEO 0433 G 20081203221858000 56 15 0348353+110533 39  +090 05
    91128 08 838GEO 0433 G 20081203225755000 56 15 0424569+120325 39  +090 05
    91128 08 838GEO 0433 G 20081203230106000 56 15 0428009+120739 39  +090 05
    91128 08 838GEO 0433 G 20081203233047000 56 15 0456127+124428 39  +085 05
    91128 08 838GEO 0433 G 20081203233417000 56 15 0459347+124830 39  +085 05
    
    
    Notes:
    -------
    (1) Bright unknown found whilst observing DSP-F23. Appeared steady entire
        arc tracked. This is one of the brightest unknowns Ive found in
        recent times so I will make a special effort to try and find it again
        - would be nice if its our missing MERCURY-2 (aka 90016)?
    
    (2) LOTS more to measure - will take me about two days to do it all....
    
    Cheers
    Greg
    
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive:  
    http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Dec 04 2008 - 07:59:57 UTC