Hi!
Programer (progrmer@max.tiac.net)
Mon, 10 Jul 1995 15:15:03 -0400 (EDT)
Hello! I just signed up tho this mailing list and the automated msg that
I got back said to tell everyone what my interetes are in satellite
tracking...well i'm sure a lot of people will be interested in the following!
I am an intern for the summer at the Boston Museum of Science, we have an
Observatory w/a 12" SC and a 7" reflector (both meades). The mount we
use is the ArchImage mount, a very precise mount that can aim within 1
arcmin on a 180 degree slew!!! (yes 1 arcmin!)
Anyways, I have written software for this mount that will let us track
and PHOTOGRAPH any satellite we have the orbital elements to. Our
maximum resolution is .5 arc seconds (.4 arc seconds using image
processing if there is any siginifcant detail to actually process) and I
have personally see satellites at powers up to 500x!
During the STS-71 mission I was able to see Mir and the Shuttle docked up
at 100x (the tracking software wasnt quite as good as it is now and we
where going for a slightly wide field of view) but without any trouble I
could see 6 solor panels, 3 on each side of mir, the shuttle, its tail
fin and its nose....
I have taken CCD frames off of 3/4 inch tape and converted them to .gif's
of Cosmos 1833 r passing within arcminutes of Phebda/Gamma-UMa which i
will send to ppl & post in alt.binaries.pictures.astro once I add in the
nessessary text into the gif.
We have also tracked the shuttle during the daytime at 5pm EDT a few days
ago, and even with the mediocer pass we had that day we could still see
it as a little elongated shape w/a hint of its wings and maybe some of
the shadows caused by the cargo bay doors.
Since we have the ability to tape every satellite we see we can do very
accurate tumbler timeings and get good pulse rates.
Welp i think I'll stop here for now since this message is getting really
long...
btw there will be a web page of all this comming within the next few weeks!
Marek
progrmer@max.tiac.net
http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~progrmer