Subject: "Red Dot" Observations in the Southern Hemisphere
This is part of the Southern hemisphere geostationary flare
program of Jeff Umbarger. His assistance and advice has
been invaluable as well as the contributions from Bjorn Gimle
and Rod Austin. I propose to observe every night until the
"flare" season has passed.
Equipment: CoSaTrak 1 200mm f/3.5.8 lens with MINTRON
surveillance camera integrating for 128 frames (=2.56s
exposure). Mount tracking on shadow entry point ( approx
RA12h50m Dec +05deg. Field of view of camera 1.76 x 1.39
degrees, star limit magnitude approx +12.5 mag.
08 April 2007
---------------------
SatName Cat No. Time(UT) RA (J2000) Dec Notes
------------ ------- --------- -------------------- -----
Insat 4A #28911 18h11m16s 13h16m35s +05d03'47" 1
Insat 3B #26108 18h12m33s 13h17m36s +05d08'03" 1
Express AM2 #28629 18h25m04s 13h17m56s +05d05'35"
Thaicom 5 #29163 18h29m40s 13h16m21s +05d03'30"
Telstar 10 #25010 18h37m39s 13h15m48s +05d10'42" 2
LMI 1 #25924 18h43m57s 13h15m39s +05d10'00"
Insat 3C #27298 18h48m05s 13h15m52s +05d11'58"
Kalpana 1 #27525 18h48m33s 13h16m19s +05d13'23" 3
Intelsat 4 #23636 18h56m33s 13h15m40s +05d12'34"
Eutelsat W5 #27554 19h02m16s 13h14m50s +05d13'18"
Intelsat 704 #23461 19h19m48s 13h13m07s +05d15'04"
Inmarsat 3F1 #23839 19h27m52s 13h14m39s +05d23'53"
Intelsat 906 #27513 19h28m07s 13h13m32s +05d15'21"
Intelsat 902 #26900 19h36m25s 13h12m12s +05d16'33"
ESA96106 ------ 19h44m14s 13h11m25s +05d14'06" 4
Intelsat 904 #27380 19h44m41s 13h11m52s +05d18'57"
NSS 703 #23305 19h56m25s 13h10m35s +05d19'43"
Bonum 1 #25546 19h59m27s 13h09m01s +05d21'54" 5
Insat 3E #27951 20h04m13s 13h09m42s +05d22'47"
Intelsat 702 #23124 20h05m02s 13h09m42s +05d21'00"
Notes:
-------------
1. Three satellites in a cluster- two bright and one
much fainter. SPACETRACK predictions do not match
configuration so not sure if identification correct.
Third member far too faint to get shadow entry time.
2. Telstar 10 - rather faint - difficult.
3. SPACETRACK predicts GSAT3 in cluster Insat3C and
Kalpana 1 - not seen.
4. ESA 96106 , also known as 90035 05625A has no
SPACETRACK no. Current elements somewhat "off".
Crosstrack error about 12 arc minutes.
5. Rather faint.
#90031 seen flashing to mag +7 every 2.5 seconds approx before
shadow entry - did about 6 flashes. First time I think Ive seen
it flashing - similar to DSP satellites.
Cheers
Greg
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