Lacrosse 2 is no more.....

A number of non-detections over the past week have confirmed that the classified US SAR satellite Lacrosse 2 (91-017A), the oldest of the still orbiting Lacrosses, has been de-orbited on or around March 26th.

The first to note Lacrosse 2 absent was Russell Eberst in Edinburgh on March 30th - incidently, the very person who also saw it first in March 1991.

This prompted a watch by other observers, including me, who all confirmed the "no-show" of Lacrosse 2.

In the evening of April 1st, I conducted a photographic watch between 19:44:00 and 19:53:00 UTC, keeping continuous coverage of a 18 x 24 degree FOV centered on the nominal position predicted for the satellite for 19:47:30 UTC. Nothing was recorded (another Lacrosse, Lacrosse 4 (00-047A) was recorded in the images when it passed through the same area at about 19:46 UTC).

As it now transpires, probably the last person to see Lacrosse 2 alive was Pierre Neirinck in France at March 25th, 20:19 UTC. Another observer failed to see it on March 26th: quite likely, it was de-orbited only a few hours and orbits after Pierre's observation.

Launched on March 8th, 1991, Lacrosse 2 has been operational for almost exactly 20 years: a long period of active service indeed.

Below are a number of archive images of Lacrosse 2 taken by me in 2008 and 2010. Goodbye, Lacrosse 2, you always were such a nice bright satellite to track.....

click images to enlarge

Another GOCE flare

Yesterday evening started very clear, but ended cloudy. Nevertheless I was able to bag several objects: the Lacrosses 2 & 3, the NOSS 3-4 Centaur rocket, GOCE flaring, and the HEO objects USA 179 and USA 184.

GOCE (the European Gravity field and steady state Ocean Circulation Explorer) made a zenith pass, zipping close to M31 at mag. +4 to +5 and then flaring briefly to mag. +2 at 17:24:23.15 UTC. It was nice to watch. GOCE is in a very low orbit and moves very fast: the flare almost looks like a meteor to the eye.

The flare was caused by the 67.5 degree panel and the time yields a flare angle of 93.6 degree and tilt of 51.9 degree. The 93 degree angle is consistent for all GOCE flares I so far observed (theoretically, that angle should be 90 degrees, i.e. at the moment of culmination when the sun-observer-satellite flight direction makes a square angle). The miss distance to the theoretical central flare path (quite large in this instance: some 175 km!) doesn't really seem to matter with regard to the flare brightness: they always come out at +2 to +3 (even when, as in this case, the tilt is off from 67.5 degree by over 15 degrees).

Below is the image, the derived brightness profile (edit - please note that the time stated in the upper left corner of the diagram is wrong: I inadvertently mentioned the end of the exposure here instead of the flare peak time), and the observing geometry. Note how the flare peak is slightly asymmetrical, the descending branch is slightly steeper.

click images to enlarge

Off to a good start: a GOCE and a Lacrosse 2 flare

2010 started off well with a very clear evening of January 1st. I observed GOCE (09-013A), the Lacrosses 2 & 3 (91-017A & 97-064A), the tumbling NOSS 3-4 Centaur rocket (07-027B), and the HEO objects USA 179, 184 and 200.

I was treated to two small flares: one by GOCE (09-013A) and one by Lacrosse 2 (91-017A).

The GOCE flare was a mild one to about +3, at 17:32:58.0 UTC. It was caused by the 67.5 degree panel. The time of the flare (accurate to 0.1s) yields an angle of 93.2 and tilt of 66.3 with a nominal mis distance to the theoretical flare path (angle 90 degrees, tilt 67.5 degrees) of 19.4 km at the time of observation (and closest approach to 17.1 km 1.2 seconds earlier at 17:32:56.8 UTC).

So far, all the GOCE mild flares I observed were with an angle ~93 degrees. The distance to the nominal flare path of this one was much less than for the three flares previously observed by me, but that doesn't seem to have much influence on the observed flare brightness: they were all around +3 magnitude.

Below are the picture, the derived brightness profile, and a depiction of the flare path geometry based on Simone Corbellini's Visual Sat-Flare Tracker 3D software.

click images to enlarge

Unexpectedly, I also captured a brief (<0.5s) flare/glint by Lacrosse 2 (91-017A) at 17:56:58.4 UTC. Below is the image and the resulting brightness profile:

click images to enlarge

Last observations of the year, and 2009 at a glance

December 2009 saw a lot of clouded sky, a few clear frosty skies, and lots of snow (for our country at least). After my December 6th observations (see previous post) I observed on December 13th (under modest conditions) and December 28th (under good conditions).

Targets imaged were the HEO objects USA 179 (04-034A), USA 184 (06-027A) and USA 198 (07-060A), and the STSS Demo objects (09-052A & B); and the LEO objects Lacrosse 2 (91-017A) and Lacrosse 5 (05-016A).

These are probably my last observations for this year, as today is overcast and tonight will see fireworks. So, what did 2009 bring on the observational front?

2009 was a good year. I observed on 77 nights, obtaining a total of 953 positions (8 visually, 945 photographically). They were spread over the year as follows:





These observations concern 32 different classified objects (both payloads and rocket boosters), plus a number of special-interest non-classified objects such as Space Shuttles, GOCE, and the Iridium 33 wreckage:

click image to enlarge list

Just for fun, I have also plotted all obtained positions on an RA/Declination map:

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The clustering in certain positions is because I tend to select sky areas with easily recognizable bright star patterns. This helps easy aiming of the camrea, and it also speedens initial star identifications during the astrometric reduction of the images.

The STSS demo rocket

On November 30, Russel Eberst recovered the "lost" rocket stage 2009-052C from the STSS Demo launch. This allowed Ted to observe it from a preliminary elset in the early hours of Dec 1st, followed by me later that day, and a number of other observers in the days after.

During my observation, thin veil clouds were scattered in the sky, and a bright near-full moon was glowing in the sky. This lead to considerably fogged images. Nevertheless the object showed up on 3 images. It was faint near the zenith and definitely brighter while descending in the east. Below image shows it crossing Andromeda.

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The object should decay somewhere in April/May 2010 (see here). This means we have another nice fastly evolving orbit to keep track on this winter and spring.

This same evening I tried to capture Lacrosse 2 (91-017A) but failed, due to the object having manoeuvred and hence being late.

The past week saw several bright evenings, yielding a rich haul of satellite positions. Observations were done in the evenings of September 16, 17, 20 and 21. Data were obtained on some of "the usual suspects": the KH-12 Keyholes USA 129 and USA 186, the SAR Lacrosse 2, the HEO objects USA 184 and USA 198, and the USA 144 decoy.

Both KH-12 Keyholes USA 129 and 186 slowly flared to -1 at September 16th: 96-072A at about 19:44:27 UTC in the southeast; 05-042A at 21:01:46 UTC in the northwest.

USA 129 showed another bright slow flare peaking about 20:00:51 UTC on 17 Sep, just after the end of an exposure. I captured the rising part of it.

Below are two pictures of last evening (21 Sept), showing the KH-12 Keyhole plus a faint stray near M31, the Andromeda galaxy: and showing the USA 144 decoy passing close to the ELINT USA 184. The first image was made with the EF 50/2.5 macro lens, the second with the EF 100/2.8 macro USM lens.

click images to enlarge

Molniya orbits and a Keyhole flare again

The evening of September 10 saw more than a nice Space Shuttle pass (see previous post) and the ISS.

In fact, it was a prolific evening which yielded data on the Lacrosse 2 SAR (91-017A), the USA 186 KH-12 Keyhole (05-042A) and two objects in Molniya orbits: the ELINT and SBIRS satellite USA 184 (06-027A) and the SDS-3 communication satellite USA 198 (07-060A).

USA 184 was imaged in two sessions 1h 45m apart. It is interesting to see the effect of it moving towards its apogeum (see below: in these images, which are on the same scale and at full pixel resolution, 1 pixel equals 10" (arcseconds)): while during the first session the satellite still creates a recognizable trail in the 10 second exposures (taken with the EF100/2.8 Macro USM), it appears as an almost static stellar object in the exposures taken 1h 45m later:

click image to enlarge

The Keyhole USA 186 flared brightly to -1 at about 20:25:43 UTC, just before the start of an exposure. I captured the descending branch of the flare. As I had mispointed the camera in haste, the satellite unfortunately runs out of the FOV (the sat is moving from right to left on the image):

click images to enlarge

USA 184 Trumpet (?) ELINT and more

Yesterday in the daytime, it was clouded and rainy. It cleared marvelously in the evning though. I detected the clearings too late to capture the evening Keyhole passes, but captured a number of other objects: IGS 1B (03-009B, a defunct Japanese SAR), Lacrosse 2 (91-017A, a SAR as well), the NOSS 3-3 Duo (05-004 A & B), and two HEO objects: USA 184 (06-027A) and the USA 144 decoy (99-028C) again.

The image below shows the USA 144 decoy again, and is a somewhat better picture than that which I posted in a previous post:

Click image to enlarge

USA 184 was imaged as well, and for the first time by me. It showed up bright. It is probably a Trumpet-class ELINT satellite. It is in a Molniya orbit (see below) and at the time of imaging was at an altitude of 28560 km, over Northern Europe.

Click image to enlarge

Below is one of the images, plus an animated GIF of all five images, showing the movement perpendicular to the night sky rotation:

Click images to enlarge

Space Shuttle STS-126

After a very long period of poor weather, this evening was clear enough to see some stars and...Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-126. The sky quality was poor though, with a lot of haze.

The first observation was in deep twilight, at 16:25 UTC. STS-126 was 1m 45s ahead of ISS, descending to the east as the ISS rose in the west. It was bright, at least -1.5. I captured both on a series of 4 second images. Below is a composite of two of these images, taken 1m45s apart and combined in to one picture:

(click image to enlarge)

The second pass was at 17:58 UTC, when it was completely dark. Both STS-126 and the ISS disappeared in the Earth shadow at 50 degree altitude. The Shuttle was very bright, at least mag. -2. Below are two images: one single shot of the Shuttle, and a second where this image is combined with a shot of the ISS taken 1m 50s later. One can see from the latter, that STS-126 was almost as bright as the ISS:

(click images to enlarge)

I also captured Lacrosse 2 (91-017A), which manoeuvred a few days ago, on photograph. To my surprise, as I failed to see it naked eye, I also have Progress-M65 faintly on photograph.

IGS 1B flare, no Perseids

Yesterday was a strange evening. The day had been very clear, but with very strong wind (with gusts up to 100 km/h). In twilight, some clouds came in. It then got completely clouded, cleared again, and finally got clouded again, including a thunderstorm.

This all made me miss the Perseid meteor maximum. During the clearings however, I did manage to catch Lacrosse 2 (91-107A, in twilight), and the failed Japanese satellite IGS 1B (03-009B).

The latter was very bright (about +0.5) in the southeast and east. It then faded notably to +3, +3.5 just past east, and finally flared brightly to -1.5 in the northeast around 21:03:55 UTC.

I got three images of both satellites, totalling 11 positions (I dropped the faint trail end of the third IGS 1B image). The three IGS 1B images showed a second, very faint trail as well, which turned out to be the classified research MSX satellite (96-024A).

(click images to enlarge)

Lacrosse 2 and a splendid -7.5 Iridium 5 flare

After an overcast day with rain, holes started to appear in the cloud cover in the evening. They allowed me to capture Lacrosse 2 (91-017A) in a blue twilight sky, followed by a splendid magnitude -7.5 flare of Iridium 5 close to Arcturus seen through thin hazy clouds.

Lacrosse 2 flared as well to mag. -1 at 21:34:42 UTC (Jul 5).

The top image below shows Lacrosse 2 in twilight. The second picture shows the Iridium flare, with Arcturus at left.

(click images to enlarge)

Lacrosse 2 manoeuvred, and first results with the EF 50/2.5 Macro lens

Last two weeks I took several images in order to calibrate the timing of the new Canon EOS 450D camera. I finished the calibration just in time to catch positions of the SAR satellite Lacrosse 2 (91-017A), which manoeuvred twice last week. As usual, this happened with perigee on the equator.

The new Canon EF 50/2.5 Macro lens arrived as well. As promised by my friends who recommended it, it is a superb lens not only for macro photography, but also for astrophotography.

(click images to enlarge)

Above are two examples of images I shot with the lens: one macro image of a seven-spotted ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata) on lavender in the Cospar 4353 garden; and an astrophotography result, obtained from Cospar 4353. The latter shows the area around Deneb in Cygnus, including the North America nebula. It is the result of a 'stack' (digital sum) of 98 individual exposures of 10s each (mimmicing a 16m20s exposure).

Combined with an ISO 800 setting on the camera, the EF 50/2.5 Macro goes much deeper than my previous Ixus camera's did, catching fainter objects. Last Tuesday and Wednesday nights, this was immediately apparent from the number of strays catched during satellite photography and a short astrophotography session.

(click image to enlarge)

The lens (with 50 mm and a factor 1.6 equivalent to an 80 mm lens on an analogue camera) has about 25 degrees FOV, which is a 50% smaller FOV than I previously used, so pointing the camera correctly needs more attention. But the results are superb. On the stars, I get astrometric standard deviations of only 5" (5 arc seconds) typically. The satellite positions have a larger uncertainty, as they are also influenced by the timing accuracy.

The amount of noise produced by the EOS 450D sensor is much less than that by the Ixus camera's, and that pays off. While (unlike the Ixus) the camera does not standardly employ a noise reduction routine (which with the Ixus I suspected to sometimes "eat" part of the trails), the satellite trails stand out much better in the background, with less ambiguity as to where the trail ends.

Below are two images of last night: a single shot of Lacrosse 2 (91-017A), and a stack of two images taken shortly after each other. Relative to the pre-manoeuvre orbital elset (epoch 08177.99486268) the sat was 35 seconds early last night, on June 30 it was 2 seconds.

(click images to enlarge)

Observing ISS and two of its Progress cargo spacecraft

Yesterday evening was very clear, and provided the rather unique opportunity to see the International Space Station (ISS) pass in twilight, followed several minutes later by two of its cargo Spacecraft: Progress-M62 (07-064A) decoupled from ISS on Wednesday and now moving away from it carrying garbage, and Progress-M63 (08-004A) launched from Baikonur in Kazachstan on Wednesday and on its way to the ISS with fresh cargo. Seeing two Progress spacecraft in free flight on the same evening is unique.

ISS was the first to pass, still in deep twilight, at 18:15 local time, being around mag. -3. Five minutes later Progress-M62 followed on a trajectory a few degrees higher, grazing the Hyades cluster, and being about mag. +1. And twelve minutes after that, the newly launched Progress-M63 followed in a very similar trajectory. By that time, although the sky was still bright due to twilight, it was dark enough to try to photograph it. The resulting photograph has a very bright background drowning the trail, but after some image manipulation for brightness and contrast it is visible:

(click image to enlarge)

I logged a point for Progress-M63 through the telescope, and the endpoint of the trail on the image above provided a second point.

Later in the evening I observed Lacrosse 2 (91-017A), which by now was 34.6 seconds early, the USA 32 ELINT sat (88-078A), Lacrosse 5 (05-016A) and the NOSS 3-2 duo (03-054A & C), the latter duo on two consecutive passes.

Like previous days it was again clouded in the morning, so no chance to observe USA 193.

Tomorrow evening is going to prove very interesting, I hope. The weather prospects are good, and if the launch isn't postponed this evening, I will have a very good 80 degree post-twilight pass of Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-122. In addition, the ISS and the two Progresses can be observed again. Plus, the Soyuz rocket booster (08-004B) from the Progress-M63 launch could prove very interesting, as it will make two passes (one visible and one in shadow) while close to decay.

Lacrosse 2 manoeuvred again (updated)

Yesterday evening was very clear. While looking up some deep-sky objects and while waiting for target satellites to appear, I saw several faint strays.

Lacrosse 2 (91-017A) was 21.6s early and 0.16 degree off-track relative to a week old elset 08027.82795435. Hence, just like early January, it appears to have manoeuvred again.

Update: Russell Eberst's data of the same pass confirm my observation. From a very preliminary analysis I did, it seems that the manoeuvre entails a similar mean motion change by about +0.0005 as was the case early last month.

Other objects observed this evening were the ELINT sat USA 32 (88-078A) and the NOSS 3-2 duo (03-054A & C). In addition, I observed the International Space Station making a pass through Taurus just beneath the Hyades and Pleiades. I had not realised the decoupled Progress M-62 would be following it closely, so I missed that one (it also was just too far behind ISS to show up on the photograph I shot, see below).

(click image to enlarge)

It was overcast this morning so again no chance to observe USA 193. It is still overcast, so I am going to miss both the old and new Progress (the latter launched today) tonight. I hope it clears in time to observe them and the Space Shuttle STS-122 that is scheduled to launch next Thursday.

Lacrosse 2 manoeuvre, and bad luck with a stopwatch

Yesterday was a very clear day, so in twilight I set up the ETX-70 to gather positional data on Lacrosse 2 (91-017A), the NOSS 3-3 (05-004 A & C) duo and the NOSS 3-4 (07-024A & C) duo.

I had adapted the home-made piggyback camera adapter slightly, so it can also funtion as a rest for my 5 mw green laserpointer. The drawback of the ETX-70 is that it doesn't come with a finderscope, so I use the laser to point the telescope. A 5 mw green laser gives a tens of meters long visible beam at night pointing to where you point the scope if you shine it parallel to the scope tube. Simple, and works like a charm.

Unfortunately, after succesfully observing passes of NOSS 3-3 A & C and Lacrosse 2 I must have hit a wrong button on the stopwatch by mistake. When I had pointed the telescope to the point near where NOSS 3-4 A & C should pass and took up the stopwatch, I discovered to my horror that it was no longer running and had no lap times in it's memory! I lost all gathered points so far.

Next, in the confusion of having to start up the stopwatch anew just before the NOSS 3-4 duo pass, I lost that pass.

Now, I can't quite stand such things happening, it makes me very irritated for a while. Luckily my neighbours have double-pane glass, so probably they did not hear my swearing...

What saved the night was that before turning to the telescope, I had triggered the Ixus camera in addition during the Lacrosse 2 (91-017A) pass. The trail showed up faint but well enough defined to measure against the late twilight sky, which meant I had an image providing two positions.

After data reduction, it turned out that the satellite was 17.3 seconds early relative to Mike's 07357.17849791 TLE. On the 6th of January, the difference to this TLE was 1 second. So I reckoned 91-017A must have made a manoeuvre recently. Which, it turns out, it indeed did, a small manoeuvre changing the mean-motion slightly on or near the 6th. What I had missed was that Mike had just issued and update of the 91-017A orbit incorporating the manoeuvre yesterday morning.
That 91-017A still does manoeuvre, points out it is still alive and probably still being used for reconnaisance almost 17 years after it was launched.

(click image to enlarge)

Lacrosse 2 (91-017A) crossing through Cygnus 17.3 seconds early

I set my alarm-clock to see if it would still be clear in the morning (allowing me in that event to catch amongst others Progress M-61). But alas, it had become overcast.

Chasing Keyholes

The past two evenings where very clear again. I spent them chasing Keyholes and Lacrosses.

USA 129 (96-072A) and USA 186 (05-042A) provided some nice flares again. On Saturday the 7th, USA 129 displayed a slow -1 flare at 20:01:00 UTC, and a +2 flare very low in the west during the second pass at 21:38:40. The next evening, its cousin USA 186 flared to mag. 0 at 20:22:30 UTC in pretty much the same local sky area as USA 129 did the previous evening. In both cases they peaked in brightness before my first exposure started, and I catched them fading again (see image below).

I also obtained my first point on the Japanese radar sat IGS 1B (03-009B) since its reported failure. It came out of eclipse just above the rooftops, the trail on the image is still faint and hence I am not too confident in the single position I obtained.

In the next few weeks, moving away from spring equinox, the IGS-es will come higher and higher in the sky. There is a new set of recently launched IGS objects I hope to start tracking besides IGS 1B.

As usual the Lacrosses were covered again too. Lacrosse 5 (05-016A) did its "disappearance trick" again on the 7th at 19:30:17 UTC. The other Lacrosse target was Lacrosse 2 (91-017A).

For yesterday evening, I had USA 129 less than 0.1 s "late", but clearly off-track by 0.08 degree. USA 186 was as much as 0.9s late but on-track. Lacrosse 2 was less than 0.1s "early" and on-track.

The image below shows USA 129 (96-072A) some 15 seconds after a flare peak, still being mag. +2, crossing near the Coma cluster on the 7th.

(click image to enlarge)

More KH flare fun

Observing a flare as a bonus to position determinations keeps being the icing on the cake for me. Last night Keyhole USA 186 (05-042A), the real one this time ;-) , did it again. I flared to magnitude -1 in the zenith at 21:01:10 UTC.

My camera opened about 10 seconds later, when the satellite was already well past the flare maximum. It is still of about mag. +2 at the start of the trail on the image, but fades to invisibility during the exposure.

Other targets imaged last night were the SAR satellites Lacrosse 5 (during two passes) and Lacrosse 2.

Lacrosse 2 (91-017A) was 2.3s early. Lacrosse 5 (05-016A) 0.4s late. USA 186 was on-time.

I am eagerly awaiting the opening of the springtime visibility window of the Japanese radar satellite IGS 1B (03-009B). After several years of operation this satellite recently reportedly failed in orbit. While operational its orbit was tightly controlled by almost daily small orbit manoeuvres keeping it very steady. It is interesting to see whether that level of control is now dropped (early results by other trackers indeed suggest such).

Lacrosse 2 running early

Lacrosse 2 (91-017A), the oldest in the Lacrosse (Onyx) SAR-satellite series still in orbit, is running increasingly early. Yesterday evening it already was over 7 seconds early and clearly off-track relative to a 4 day old elset. Is it going down for a de-orbit?

Yesterday evening saw very clear skies. I gathered a nice batch of data: two images (4 positions) on Lacrosse 2 (91-017A), two images (4 positions) on Lacrosse 3 (97-064A), and three images (6 positions) on USA 129 (96-072A). Plus in addition to this, I catched a stray in one of the Lacrosse 3 images, which turned out to be a 22-year-old Russian rocket booster, Kosmos 1689 Rk (85-090B, #16111).

Below is one of the three images I shot of USA 129.

This evening I skipped tracking activities. I am not feeling well and decided to take some rest instead.

(click image to enlarge)

A Keyhole and two Lacrosses

Another clear evening last night. I managed to catch one KH and two Lacrosses.

The KH was USA 129 (96-072A). It appears as two rather faint trails on two images: the starting point on the first trail is behind the building. I have it running 0.7s early relative to a 2-day-old elset. I obtained 3 positions

Lacrosse 2 (91-017A) was as much as 1.5s early and 0.1 degree off in cross-track relative to a similar aged elset. I obtained 3 positions.

Lacrosse 3 (97-064A) by contrast was pretty much on-time and on-track. It made a nice bright trail. It briefly and modestly flared up to maybe +1.5 at about 19:49:45 UTC, just before shadow entry. I obtained 2 positions.

Clear skies at last!

After a month of being clouded out, clear skies at last this evening! I targetted two Lacrosse satellites: Lacrosse 2 (91-017A) and Lacrosse 3 (97-064A). An attempt was also made to capture USA 129, but it was too faint for the camera.

Both Lacrosse satellites made a nice pass, reaching about mag. +2.5. Lacrosse 3 (97-064A) was on-time and on-track. Lacrosse 2 (91-17A) however, was some 0.2s late and 0.1 degree off-track. The photograph (see below) shows that it slowly brightened about midway in the exposure. I dare not call it a flare however, as it is rather marginal.

On below image of the Lacrosse 2 trail: Castor and Pollux at left, alpha Auriga at right. The sat moves from bottom to top.

(click image to enlarge)