Tianhe+Shenzhou rendezvous video -- and another satellite

From: Clockwork Mapping via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2021 19:03:22 -0400
There is a video taken by an observer in New Zealand showing
Shenzhou-12 and Tianhe
in close proximity before docking three days ago. I estimate the
actual separation distance
during the video is about 3.3 km. It's captioned as a video of the
"docking", but of course
ground observers would not directly see that, and I imagine this is
60-90 minutes before
the final docking. Video link:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myd_4-hoRPI

I think I have this fairly well figured out. The bright star on the
right near the start of the video
is Sirius. The spacecraft pair crosses very nearly over beta CMa
(Mirzam) at about
06:37:43 UT on 17 June 2021. Near the end of the video (which would be
just before shadow
entry), the pair crosses theta Chamaeleontis (about 06:40:05 UT). My
best estimate for the
latitude of the observer is 37° 48' S. The apparent path is not
particularly sensitive to longitude,
since the ground track is nearly east-west at this time, but my guess
is 176° 09' E.
Estimated error bars: +/-2' on latitude, and +/-10' longitude. Is this
close? Anyone know
the videographer? Maybe following Seesat-L?

During the video another bright satellite appears. It crosses the
track (visually!) just ahead
of the Tianhe Shenzhou pair about 30 seconds from the end of the
video. It's headed
generally northbound and passes about a degree from the bright open
star cluster
NGC 2516 as it goes out of frame. Can anyone identify it? I tried, but
could not.

Frank Reed
Clockwork Mapping / ReedNavigation.com
Conanicut Island USA

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Received on Sun Jun 20 2021 - 18:04:42 UTC

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