USA 129 with a Chinese rocket, and a failed attempt for a last view of UARS

Yesterday afternoon it cleared fantastically. In the evening, I targetted the KH-12 Keyhole USA 129 (96-072A), which I also observed on the 11th and 14th under much more challenging conditions.

USA 129 had some confusion in store: at the moment it appeared from behind the roof on its ascending trajectory, not one but two bright objects appeared, side by side and moving more or less parallel.

click image to enlarge

One of the objects (the westernmost one) moved slightly faster than the other. It was a Chinese Long March rocket booster, CZ-2C r/b (09-061B) used to launch the SJ-11-01 experimental satellite.

USA 129 itself next slowly flared to mag. +0.5 at about 19:35:05 UTC.

The first image showed, besides USA 129 and CZ-2C r/b, yet a third, very faint trail. It didn't match any known object. After some enhancing and looking at it in detail, I think it is actually a meteor, not a satellite. As my attention was to the bright and unexpected USA 129/CZ-2C r/b chance duo, I did not see the object visually.

In the early morning, UARS, now only days from re-entry, would make a pass emerging from earth shadow at 20 degrees altitude under Orion near 3:50 UTC (5:50 am local time). This was probably my last chance to see it before re-entry.

When I woke up and checked the sky it was clear apart from a field of clouds in the northwest. Grabbing my gear, patches of clouds unfortunately moved in south as well. Short story: patch of clouds right under Orion right at the moment UARS would pass....so UARS not seen, alas.

The expected decay of UARS is moving more and more forward in time, and is now set for the second half of September 23rd.

KH-12 USA 129 and a Chinese rocket stage (CZ-2C r/b) cruising up together

Tuesday evening, the sky was very hazy and a waxing moon was high in the sky. Conditions were hence abominable, but I managed to capture both evening KH-12's, USA 129 (96-072A) and USA 186 (05-042A). The pictures are not pretty, as they are quite fogged.

The pass of USA 129 was confusing, as a second bright object close to it was moving parallel to it: at the moment of observation, I was not sure which object was the Keyhole and what the other object was! It took me rather by surprise (and as a result, I mis-aligned the camera for the second image, resulting in only one image).

It turned out to be a Chinese Long March rocket stage, a CZ-2C r/b (09-061B) from the launch of Shijian 11-01 on November 12, 2009. Below is the image, showing them cruising up together in a moon-fogged sky:

click image to enlarge

A few days earlier, on 11 March, I observed USA 186 (05-042A), Lacrosse 5 (05-016A) and the USA 144 Decoy (99-028C). I obtained a series of images on the latter, and hopefully these can be employed for a brightness variation reconstruction again (to be reported on later, after I have had some time to do the analysis).

Lacrosse 5 was racing against an untimely field of clouds that evening, yielding this picture of a bright satellite trail and a wisp of moving cloud:

click image to enlarge

The satellite did it's "disappearance trick" again during culmination north, reappearing very brightly for a brief period after it.

Earlier that evening, in a still mostly clouded sky, I saw METOP-A flaring brightly to at least -3 at about 20:09:20 UTC (March 11).