Observations 05 June 2006:
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Cosatrak 1 (Computerised satellite Tracking System).
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 100mm focal length f/1.8 lens,integrating for 128 frames
which is equivalent to an exposure of 2.56 seconds per image.
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:
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90027 04 841A 0433 F 20060605164508400 56 15 1008547+335417 39 +080 05
90027 04 841A 0433 F 20060605164631600 56 15 1011589+344222 39 +085 05
90027 04 841A 0433 F 20060605164735100 56 15 1014084+351723 39 +090 05
90037 05 638A 0433 F 20060605182730100 56 15 1632051-023018 39 +090 05
90013 03 564A 0433 F 20060605183049700 56 15 1437335+014405 39 +080 05
Stray seen:
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DMSP B5D2-3 variable
18123 87 053A 0433 F 20060605163859600 56 15 1014042+351419 39 +075 05
DMSP 2-1 faint
13736 82 118A 0433 F 20060605164948400 56 15 1011403+343845 39 +090 05
Cosmos 2173 Rkt steady
21797 91 081B 0433 F 20060605170238200 56 15 0821271-815746 39 +060 05
Cosmos 1950 Rkt variable
19196 88 046B 0433 F 20060605170525400 56 15 0858217-823142 39 +075 05
Iridium 91
27372 02 005A 0433 F 20060605170622600 56 15 0915265-825443 39 +075 05
Iridium 29
24944 97 051A 0433 F 20060605170624800 56 15 0811427-824455 39 +078 05
Cosmos 198 steady
03081 67 127A 0433 F 20060605174031800 56 15 1125539-103142 39 +070 05
Globalstar 58 steady
25910 99 049D 0433 F 20060605175258800 56 15 1114366-105614 39 +070 05
Cosmos 1943 rkt steady
19120 88 039B 0433 F 20060605181706000 56 15 1040140-070633 39 +055 05
Another new unknown:
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91069 06 156MEO 0433 F 20060605183151300 56 15 1436441+024726 39 +085 05
91069 06 156MEO 0433 F 20060605183241200 56 15 1447262+005140 39 +075 05
91069 06 156MEO 0433 F 20060605183343000 56 15 1459408-011653 39 +080 05
91069 06 156MEO 0433 F 20060605183446500 56 15 1510598-031108 39 +080 05
91069 06 156MEO 0433 F 20060605183545000 56 15 1520364-044216 39 +075 05
91069 06 156MEO 0433 F 20060605183633800 56 15 1528046-055306 39 +080 05
91069 06 156MEO 0433 F 20060605183737300 56 15 1537042-071424 39 +085 05
91069 06 156MEO 0433 F 20060605183852900 56 15 1546504-083814 39 +080 05
91069 06 156MEO 0433 F 20060605184032200 56 15 1558491-101008 39 +075 05
Notes:
-------
(1) Last possible chance to find #90027 before it moves into daylight
so I went as far away from the west and as low as I could go at the
end of the pass and fortunately managed to get it at a range of about
14500 kms when it brightened somewhat. I havent noticed before that
#90027 is variable but tonight it was and it faded out completely
before having crossed the field of view. Identification is positive
thanks to radio tracking by Ivan Artner and the orbital expertise of
Mike McCants.
(2) Did a plane scan for #90004 - nil seen.
(3) Did a plane scan for XSS-11 - nil seen.
(4) I was "lucky" that when I observed #90013 I used the program GUIDE
to tell me where to aim and whilst observing #90013 a bright slow
moving object was seen which was not shown by GUIDE so hopefully
its a new one. I followed it until it went into earths shadow
about 2-3 seconds after the last position reported. The object
was variable from about mag +7.5 to +9.5 with a regular variation
and a very rough period of about 5 seconds ( difficult to get
an accurate period due to the fact that images integrated but it
was under 10 seconds). From the track angle it looks like a low
inclination object - probably a rocket casing.
Wonder if Ill see this one again?
(5) My 6 inch f/5 reflector for very faint satellite work is making
slow progress. Stepper motors have now been fitted to the RA and
Dec axis and all that remains to be done is wire up the motors,
connect to the electronics ( same as what drives CoSaTrak) and then
get Mel Bartels SCOPE program to drive the telescope.
Art Arnold has supplied me with a peltier system to cool the
MINTRON camera ( reduce the number of "hot" pixels) and some
opto-isolators so that I can remote control the MINTRON camera
so this also remains to be done.
Cheers
Greg
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jun 06 2006 - 13:59:40 EDT