Observations 23 Oct 2011 ------------------------------------ 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 sensitivity 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 ~100mm focal length f/2.8 lens,integrating for 128 fields which is equivalent to a max exposure of 2.56 seconds maximum per image, but dependent on sky brightness. Field of view 4.2 x 3.1 degrees. Leo sat limit about +7.5 mag Individual frames are video time stamped with GPS derived signal. Images processed and measured manually. (2)Meade DSI Pro II Monochrome CCD camera without filters. using integration time of 05 sec. Used with 25mm focal length f/1.8 lens ,field of view 14.6 x 10.8 degrees approximately. Leo sat limit about mag +7 Exposure time to nearest second inserted into image FITS header from PC clock which is checked against GPS signal. Images processed and automatically reduced using APEX. Site 0433 : Longitude 18.51294 deg East, Latitude -33.94058 deg, Elevation 10 metres-situated in Pinelands (Cape Town),South Africa FOR CLASSIFIED.TLE: ------------------------------- 24680 96 072A 0433 G 20111023193530300 56 15 0710569-600248 39 +055 05 24680 96 072A 0433 G 20111023193554800 56 15 0648156-602913 39 +050 05 24680 96 072A 0433 G 20111023193621000 56 15 0620118-603457 39 +045 05 24680 96 072A 0433 G 20111023193641700 56 15 0555323-601857 39 +040 05 24680 96 072A 0433 G 20111023193704800 56 15 0525321-593122 39 +035 05 STRAYS SEEN: --------------------- COSMOS 1176 steady 11788 80 034A 0433 G 20111023174929800 56 15 2332226-040649 39 +055 05 TSX5 26374 00 030A 0433 G 20111023175938800 56 15 2319582-054005 39 +075 05 SL-8 R/B steady 04391 70 036J 0433 G 20111023181838300 56 15 2237451-054714 39 +060 05 MIDAS 7 steady 00622 63 030A 0433 G 20111023183922100 56 15 2158532-043436 39 +060 05 MOLNIYA 1-32 range 3780 kms 08601 76 006A 0433 G 20111023183935300 56 15 2157397-043528 39 +065 05 FALCON 9 R/B steady 37253 10 066K 0433 G 20111023184556800 56 15 2147408-044452 39 +030 05 ATLAS CENTAUR R/B range 4970 kms bright flash every ~ 4 seconds 10779 78 035B 0433 G 20111023185356500 56 15 2120424-051650 39 +030 05 DELTA 1 R/B variable range 5350 km 25619 99 003B 0433 G 20111023185629500 56 15 2118329-070407 39 +070 05 COSMOS 1410 13589 82 096A 0433 G 20111023190407700 56 15 2106269-052612 39 +055 05 GLOBALSTAR MO19 variable 25677 99 019B 0433 G 20111023191530500 56 15 2046203-045122 39 +055 05 CZ-4 DEB variable 26220 99 057DJ 0433 G 20111023192013300 56 15 2041382-050210 39 +070 05 DELTA 1 DEB variable 12176 78 026R 0433 G 20111023192342400 56 15 2032366-034712 39 +070 05 COSMOS 1763 16860 86 052A 0433 G 20111023192431400 56 15 2025175-044248 39 +075 05 PLANE SCAN "UNKNOWNS" ---------------------------------------- Approx altitude 3000 kms RA node = ~106 deg i = 33.1 degrees - assuming circular orbit using two positions which is not 100% correct for high eccen. 90070 06 829A 0433 G 20111023175359400 56 15 2317400-045501 39 +045 05 90070 06 829A 0433 G 20111023175407500 56 15 2320524-051322 39 +040 05 90070 06 829A 0433 G 20111023175415900 56 15 2324018-053104 39 +045 05 90070 06 829A 0433 G 20111023175424800 56 15 2327213-054937 39 +040 05 90070 06 829A 0433 G 20111023175433500 56 15 2330314-060726 39 +045 05 90070 06 829A 0433 G 20111023175437900 56 15 2332064-061705 39 +040 05 Approx altitude 11550 kms RA node = 006.6 i = 29.5 degrees - again assuming a circular orbit which it is not. 99999 99 999A 0433 G 20111023182213100 56 15 2225588-071642 39 +060 05 99999 99 999A 0433 G 20111023182225800 56 15 2236562-070834 39 +060 05 99999 99 999A 0433 G 20111023182253900 56 15 2239084-065148 39 +060 05 NOTES: -------- (1) Purpose of observing session was to do a plane scane for 90070 last seen about 60 days ago. (2) Found two objects not identified in my element database. Im reasonably confident that the object reported as 90070 is the correct candidate as altitude and track angle was about what was expected so running about half an hour early on current integrated orbital elements. The second object (99999) was not at expected track angle and altitude ( ~ 11550 kms) was far too high so is probably an unknown or one of the lost low inclination objects in high eccentricity orbit. (3) The observations above are only the objects seen with video using the MINTRON camera. I have still to process the 1000 odd FITS images secured with the Meade CCD camera - at a rough count about 25 satellites. (duh :-((((- more work!) (4) I have received permission from Thiery Marais to freely distribute the software that he wrote that I currently use to compute my plane scans. The file is about 250 kb so can be emailed to anyone requesting such. It provides the azimuth and elevation of the orbit plane for a satellite at intervals specified by the observer and uses standard TLE's as input. Runs under DOS/Windows. No source code available. MANY thanks Thiery for your permission - much appreciated. Cheers Greg _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
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