Nice pass of USA 129

The evening initially started clear. I observed the ISS, the Lacrosse 3 & 4 (97-064A & 00-047A) and the Keyhole USA 129 (96-072A).

Lacrosse 3 was very bright (+1) while descending to the west, showing multiple slow flares. USA 129 was very nice, +2.5 and grazing the tip of the Big Dipper's tail. It resulted in the nice picture below. The bright star grazed halfway by the trail is eta Uma, the tip of the Big dipper tail. Alcor and Mizar are in top. Movement is from righ to legt. The smudge at the left edge of the picture is clouds.

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Clear skies continue!

The series of clear frosty skies is continuing here. Following my last report on December 22nd observations, I have been able to do more observations on the 26nd, 27th and 29th, plus a number of deep-sky guided astrophotography sessions.

But first the satellites. Captured targets on these nights were Lacrosses 3 & 4 (97-064A & 00-047A), the NOSS 3-4 rocket (07-027B), which is still slowly variable, and the NOSS 3-2 duo (01-040A & C).

The latter NOSS duo made a very nice pass across the Pleiades yesterday evening:

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Yesterday, I slao shot this photograph of the open star cluster M35 in Gemini. It is a stack of 65 x 10s images, taken with the Canon EOS 450D piggyback on my Meade ETX-70. Lens was the same EF 50/2.5 (at F2.8) I use for the satellite imagery, and ISO was set at 1200.

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Near the edge of the original, M1, the Crab Nebula, actually shows up as well:

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I used an image of the Pleiades shot the evening of the 25th to glean some more indications of the astrometric positional accuracy of the EF 50/2.5 lens. The stacked image contains several asteroids up to mag. +12 (10 Hygiea, 21 Lutetia, 94 Aurora, 182 Elsa and 264 Libussa), and by measuring these in Astrometrica (highly accurate astrometric software I use for my asteroid searches in NEAT data) and comparing to the predicted positions, it turns out that the positional deviations are typically within 5" (that is arcseconds).

That is the same accuracy AstroRecord (the wide field astrometry software I use for my satellite images) indicates from the fit to the reference stars. So it is the timing uncertainty which is the main cause of uncertainty in my satellite positions.

A very clear night, Lacrosses, the Breeze-M tank and the Pleiades

Yesterday evening (22 Dec) was very clear. I obtained photographs of the passes of the Lacrosse 5 rocket (05-016B), and Lacrosse 4 (00-047A)..

I photographed Lacrosse 4 with the Pleiades just before eclipse (see below). When inspecting the image for astrometric reduction, I noted a second, fainter trail on the image. Measuring it and running an ID, I found it was close to predicted positions for the Breeze-M (deb) tank, 05-019C. There was an odd 0.6 degree discrepancy though. Mike solved it by pointing out that a SDP4 solution yielded perfect residues, while the SGP4 theory SatFit uses doesn't. So, the question mark plus the "UNID" in below image can be erased.

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Later that night, after the LEO window closed, I spent some time doing astrophotography with my camera piggyback on my Meade ETX-70. I still have to stack part of the images, but already finished stacking 102 x 10s exposures of the Pleiades with the EF 50/2.5 lens, yielding this result:

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Rich batch of objects

The night of 13-14 September was a very clear one. The near-full moon was low in the sky and the sky very transparent.

I hauled a rich batch of objects, including 8 positions on the KeyHole USA 129 (96-072A), the Lacrosses 4 & 5, (00-047A & 05-016A), and the NOSS duo's 3-1 and 3-2 (01-040 A & C, 03-054 A & C).

USA 129 made a magnitude 0 flare at 20:19:20 UTC. The descending part of the flare was captured on photograph.

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Flares, strays and spy sats

The evenings of September 1st and 3rd saw a nice catch of satellites. My new camera system (Canon EOS 450D + EF 50/2.5 Macro) really is a sat magnet, which is also apparent by the number of strays captured in images with classified objects.

Objects imaged these nights include the KeyHole satellites USA 129 (96-072A) and USA 186 (05-042A), the SAR sats Lacrosse 4 & 5 (00-047A and 05-016A), and the Japanese sats IGS 1A and IGS 1B (03-009A and 03-009B).

IGS 1A is an example of a sat that would normally be beyond reach of my older camera system, but is well within reach now. The KeyHoles are captured much more easily now too.

Moreover, the quality of the positions obtained seems to be better. This is due to both the better image quality (less ambiguity in the start and end of the trails, as the images are much less noisy and the trails brighter), and to a much better, consistent timing behaviour of this camera.

Because of the more narrow field of the EF 50/2.5 Macro lens, I employ the laser (the same I use for pointing my telescope) to point the camera. Below is a photograph of what this looks like (although in reality the beam is less bright visually: this is the result of a 10 second exposure). Stars visible are from Cassiopeia and Perseus, with the double cluster visible just beneath the laser beam.

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On September 1st, I watched Lacrosse 5 (05-016A) together with my neighbour. It was nice and bright, and did it's infamous "disappearance trick" while just past the zenith. I had just been explaining this peculiar behaviour to my neighbour, so he got a nice demonstration!

Some nice flares were captured too these evenings. Below images show a mag. -8 flare of Iridium 72 on 3 Sep 20:15:29 UTC, and a brief mag 0 flare/glint by KeyHole satellite USA 129 (96-072A) at 20:33:34 UTC on the same evening. The curtain-like structure on the Iridium image is due to a moving patch of clouds.

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Several strays were captured as well, mostly spent Russian rocket boosters.

Lacrosses and a very fine USA 161 flare

Coming back from a date shortly after midnight of August 23-24, I noted it was very clear, with only occasional small cloud fields passing. This allowed me to photographically target the optical imaging Keyhole satellite USA 161 (01-044A) and the radar Lacrosses 4 & 5 (00-047A & 05-016A).

USA 161 briefly brightened in Cassiopia, featuring a very short mag. 0 flare at 23:44:09 UTC. I was so lucky to have the camera open at that time, resulting in this very fine flare picture (with below it, the brightness profile):

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USA 129, and an unknown object

Friday evening was clear, albeit with occasional wisps of cirrus traversing the sky. Back home from my new job in which I started last week, I could do some observing again.

First I tried to observe two predicted zenith passes of USA 193 debris, but didn't spot anything.

Next target was Lacrosse 3 (97-064A). I selected a star field close to beta Umi near RA 15:00, dec +76 45', through which Lacrosse 3 would pass at 19:46:30 UTC (March 7).

Just before the expected appearance of Lacrosse 3 in the FOV, suddenly a very fast object of about mag. +7.5 crossed through the lower part of the (4 degree) FOV. It moved west-east and roughly parallel to the predicted Lacrosse track. It was very fast, maybe even moving as fast as 1.5 degree/second. It caught me completely by surprise, so it took me some time to realize what happened and try to fix an approxiate time. With a plus-minus of say 20 seconds in time, the resulting position (in IOD format) is about:

99999 08 999A 4353 G 20080307194600000 17 75 1511063+756260 36 S

Given the fast speed and general direction of movement, my thought was immediately that this could be a piece of USA 193 debris. It doesn't match any of the published catalogued debris pieces though. And according to Ted, it would be somewhat too far from the expected plane of these fragments. So the object remains unidentified.

Some 30 seconds later Lacrosse 3 sailed into the FOV.

Other objects tracked that evening were all of the NOSS 3-4 objects (07-027A, B and C) including the Centaur rocket, the NOSS 2-3 objects (96-029C, D and E). I also observed two of the KeyHole photo-reconnaissance satellites: USA 129 (96-072A) which initially was bright, and USA 186 (05-042A). They were all early, especially USA 129.

I catched the latter on photograph too, while it crossed close to Castor and Pollux in Gemini, being about mag. +0.5:

(click image to enlarge)

All in all, 16 positions were logged on 10 objects this evening, two of which were camera positions, the rest was visual. The visual position obtained for USA 129 and the two camera positions agree well.

Flaring KeyHole USA 129, and two productive evenings

The last two evenings saw a very clear sky again. Tuesday evening was cold and windy, yesterday evening a bit more comfortable. I obtained a rich batch of positions using both the telescope and the camera: 20 positions on 9 objects on the 26th, and 18 positions on 7 objects yesterday evening. These objects include KeyHoles USA 186 and USA 129, Lacrosse 4, the Lacrosse 5 rk, and various NOSS components.

Yesterday evening at about 20:38 UTC the KeyHole USA 129 (96-072A) flared while crossing Perseus. I was observing it through the telescope at that time and noted it was bright and then faded. I cannot give an exact peak time and magnitude however, as I was concentrating on obtaining positions. I had the camera open at that time, and it catched the onset of the flare very nicely:

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Here is the brightness profile:

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I also captured Lacrosse 4 (00-047A) on photograph, and observed it visually. It was on time, but definitely somewhat off-track.

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I tried in vain to spot the USA 193 debris pieces D and K last evening.

Finally, another picture of the KeyHole USA 129 (this time steady in brightness) shot on the evening of the 26th:

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Another fine night, USA 193 bright & a Lacrosse 3 flare

Friday evening and Sunday evening saw two other observing opportunities. On Friday it remained restricted to Lacrosse 3 & the Lacrosse 5 rk (97-064A & 05-016B), as clouds came in at a certain point (this made me miss a predicted -8 Iridium flare alas). I saw Lacrosse 3 (97-064A) flare to mag +0.5 however at 23:30:44 UTC (Jul 20).

Sunday night was very fine however, and I catched Lacrosse 3 & 4, plus IGS 4A/R2 (07-005A) and USA 193 (06-057A). The latter was quite bright (+0.5) while passing in the northwest. The second of the two images below shows it as it is just disappearing out of sight behind the roof. The other image shows IGS 4A/R2.

USA 193 was 2.3s early relative to Ted's elset 07202.04020244.

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Note: the time indicated in above image is in error, apologies.

Observing again

Last night was very clear, and I finally could get myself to observe again after a 2-month period of inactivity (see previous post).

In 3 hours observing time I catched a nice batch of objects: USA 193 (06-057A), IGS 4A/R2 (07-005A), Lacrosse 3 (97-064A), Lacrosse 4 (00-047A), the Lacrosse 5 rk (05-016B) and a nice -2 flare of Iridium 14 (99-032A). I also visually observed IGS 1B (03-009B) but the trail ends on the image were to marginal to measure.

Below pictures showing:

- the Japase radar reco satellite IGS 4A/R2 and the American radar reco satellitre Lacrosse 3 in one and the same image, in Cassiopeia;
- the flare of Iridium 14.

(click images to enlarge)

Note: the times listed in the Iridium flare picture are 10 seconds off from the real time

USA 161 flare, beautiful evening

Yesterday evening was very clear, thanks to a strong wind blowing the clouds away. I could observe until 3 am, when clouds came in again.

Highlight of the session was Keyhole satellite USA 161 (01-044A). It was very bright for much of its pass (about +2) and then flared to mag. -1.5 at 00:00:46 UTC. It was so nice to do that while the camera was open: image is below.

Other catches included Lacrosses 3 & 4 (97-064A & 00-047A) and IGS 1B (03-009B). One of the Lacrosse 3 images also captured a stray, which turned out to be the Kosmos 2292 SL-8 rocket (94-061B). Several other bright strays were seen, three of them flaring nicely, while preparing the camera.

I had USA 161 some 0.6s late, IGS 1B some 2.6s late, Lacrosse 4 some 0.4s late, and Lacrosse 3 some 0.3s early.

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4 flares in 15 minutes

This morning and evening of the 22nd, I managed to catch a number of fine flares again, four of which occurred within a time span of 15 minutes:

- two Iridium flares (-2 and -5, by Iridium 61 and 03 resp.);
- two USA 186 flares (-0.5 and 0), 20:44:33 and 20:45:26 UTC;
- a Lacrosse 4 flare (+1, predicted by Phil Masding), 20:41:54 UTC.

Images are below. The evening ended early when cirrus came in.

The Lacrosse flare was predicted by Philip Masding (just like the Lacrosse flare of yesterday) to within 2 seconds of time exactly.

Flares never bore me, they are always exciting to watch, and even more so when they occur at random and are so nice to do so while the camera is open....

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A timing re-calibration and another flare bonanza

Following the discovery of time discrepancies having crept into my results, I have added a -0.35 second correction as of last evening's results. The results now come much more in-line again.

In order to test this I targeted a number of objects last night, including some Iridium passes. Apart from two Iridium flares, I managed to catch some flares of classifieds again.

Here is Keyhole USA 186 (05-042A) flaring to mag. 0 in the east at 20:21:25 UTC:

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Philip Masding notified me ahead of a possible Lacrosse 4 (00-047A) flare at 21:46:15 UTC: I observed it flaring to mag. +0.5 at 21:46:17 UTC:

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USA 129 (96-072A) flared to -1 at 20:34:30 UT in the sickle of Leo, alas inbetween two images, and in general was bright in the first half of its pass:

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ISS made a nice pass close to Procyon in deep twilight. The wisps of cirrus still present at that time would rapidly dissolve:

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Flare Galore! And IGS 1B tumbling?

Flare Galore this evening! Three objects were observed flaring: keyholes USA 186 (05-042A), USA 129 (96-072A), and Lacrosse 4 (00-047A).

The USA 186 flare was spectacular, see the image below. It was a complex double flare. First it very slowly flared to mag. -1.5, peaking round about 20:53:00 UTC. When it was still fading from that flare, a second very short flare was seen at about 20:53:11 UTC. This flare terminated very suddenly, the sat becoming faint in an instance.

Below image shows it all. The peak of the first -1.5 flare coincides more or less with start of the exposure and is at down left (movement is from down left to upper right). The second flare can be seen at upper right. It ended very abruptly with the sat going to naked eye near-invisibility almost at an instance. update (19/04/07): the faint trail extension I thought was real, turns out to be an image artifact.

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Shortly after this, USA 129 flared as well, albeit more modest than USA 186 ten minutes earlier. It reached about mag. +1 at 21:03:30 UTC. The image below shows it fading directly after the flare peak.

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The third flare of this night was produced by Lacrosse 4, and predicted to me by Philip Masding. His prediction was for 21:37:34 UTC: it flared at 21:37:37 UTC. It was a modest flare only. The image is below, the brightness modestly peaks in the second part of the trail.

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This evening I finally successfully observed and captured IGS 1B (03-009B), the Japanese radar satellite that recently reportedly failed. It made a shadow exit at 23:52:50 UTC and was of mag. +2 immediately following that. In the next minute it slowly, irregularly but clearly varied in brightness with an amplitude of about 0.5 to 1 magnitude.

This is quite unlike its steady brighness in past years, so it appears that after the power failure its attitude is now out of control and it is tumbling.

In the image below it is fading, shortly after the end of the exposure it shortly gained brightness again.

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In addition to this all I also watched and photographed a fine pass of the International Space Station around 20:32 UTC, and spotted and photographed a bright stray object near 20:51 UTC while waiting for USA 186: I still have to identify this object as I have not measured that image yet.

Flares of Iridium 14, ISS (!), USA 186 and Lacrosse 4

This evening (the 16th) and the evening of the 14th I observed two nice flares of the same Iridium satellite, Iridium 14 (99-032A). On the 14th it flared to mag. -5, and this evening to -6 (top foto), in twilight. Less than a minute earlier Iridium 70 flared at virtually the same position, but less brightly.

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The International Space Station (ISS) made a number of fine bright passes as well the past days. below are two images of April 14 and 15, including a fine mag. -3.5 twilight pass (top image).

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My new neighbours were on the courtyard enjoying the mid-summer like temperatures (+28 C daytime this weekend, very unusual for mid-April) when I was targetting the twilight pass on the 15th. Seeing me put up my tripod, they asked me what I was doing. I explained, and then pointed out the rising ISS to them. At first they didn't believe me, thinking it was an aircraft, but then they realized I had predicted it to appear, so I probably was right. Still, I could see a look in their face that probably meant something like: "A nutter, but not a dangerous one...".

ISS did something unusual during the 2nd evening pass on the 15th. It was low in the west crossing into Gemini at mag. -2 or so, when suddenly (as if a switch was turned) it flared up by at least 1.5 to 2 extra magnitudes, for maybe a second or 2-3, and then back to its previous brightness again. Very conspicuous. I also had the impression of an orange colour but that could be due to the low elevation. Never seen this before with ISS. Time was approximately 21:07:15 UTC (Apr 15).

Lacrosse 4 (00-047A) flared as well that evening, briefly to mag. +0.5. This was either at 23:09:53 or 23:10:03 UTC (there is some confuson with me about the correct time).

05-042A (USA 186) shortly flared to mag. 0 at 19:45:58 UTC on Apr 15. I catched this flare on photograph but it is so short it is almost stellar. I saw it flare again on the 16th at 20:08:27, to mag. -1 and again very short (maybe a second duration).

Strangely enough I again failed to spot IGS 1B (03-009B), the Japanese radar satellite that recently had a power failure, on the 15th. This although this was a zenith pass, with the sat emerging out of eclipse in the zenith. But I could see no trace of it visually and on the photographs. This while previously this satellite would easily be visible, attaining magnitude +1.5 to +2 during high passes.

Especially the 15th resulted in a nice batch of positions on various objects.