Clear skies, nice Lacrosse 5 pass

After a few grey days, this monday turned into a very clear day. Bright blue skies in the daytime, good dark sky in th evning. I had only one good pass this evening, but a nice one: Lacrosse 5 (2005- 016A, #28646), one of my regular targets lately, made a near-zenith pass at 19:38 UTC.

Lacrosse 5 was bright and steady, appearing in the west-northwest, crossing over Cassiopeia and climbing towards the zenith and Ursa Major, at magnitude +2.0 to +1.5. No "disappearance tricks" this time.

I obtained a series of 3 images during this pas, hence 3 trails to measure and 6 positions in total. Relative to Mike McCants' elset 06074.84503776, I get the following residues:

xtrk dltaT dlpos
(deg) (sec) (deg)
0.02 0.24 0.086
0.00 0.31 0.114
0.01 0.22 0.120
0.02 0.18 0.105
0.01 0.02 0.013*
0.01 -0.08 0.045*

The last two (marked by an asterisk) deviate from the rest of the set by some 0.2 seconds in delta T. This means I might have been a tad slow in pressing the shutter release button for the last image.

Playing hide & seek with Lacrosse 5

Got a nice bunch of data on Lacrosse 5 (2005-016A, #28646) last evening. I observed two passes (19:08 and 20:50 UTC) , under poor conditions (moonlight, veil of very thin high altitude clouds with more solid patches in it). Nevertheless obtained some good trails: 3 out of 4 photographs yielded useful points (6 points reported in total, 5 of which are consistent).

Observations on March 11 & 12 had suggested to me that Lacrosse 5's "disappearance trick" might occur when it reached 64-65% illumination. If that would be correct it should do the trick again at about 19:09:30 UTC. In fact, it did at 19:09:41 +/- 3 s UTC, the satellite having reached 65% illumination at 19:09:39 UTC. This is very intrestinng: what is happening at 65% illumination thatt could cause this behavour?

At the next pass, I observed it being bright (+1.5, brighter than the previous pass when it was +2.0 to +2.5), at illuminatons between 68% and 70%. So wat ver happens it to 'dsappear"at 65% illumination, the effect is gone again by 68% illumination.

An attempt to also capture Lacrosse 2 failed as a thick patch of clouds occupied the part of the sky where it would pass.

Lacrosse 5 disappearance trick & timing problem gone?

I observed Lacrosse 5 doing its disappearance trick this evening. I think this explains my non-observation of March 6th in combination with Peter Wakelin seeing it easily only minutes before.

Saw it making a nice pass here around 19:11-19:15 UTC (obtained two good trail photographs during this pass), easily visible at mag. +1.5 to +1.0 or so. Just after the last of my two exposures ended (19:14:51 UTC), and well before it should get into eclipse, it suddenly disappeared from naked eye view, within maybe 3-5 seconds so very fast. This was at about 19:15:00-19:15:10 UTC or so.

I think this might happened at March 6th as well, just before I started to look for it.

I obtained two pictures during this pass, hence 4 points. One point (point two of photograph 1) was clearly anomalous (delta T +0.35), the other three are very consistent both internally and with Mike Mccant's latest elset for Lacrosse 5. The -0.3s delta T deviation of the previous week (see the previous post) has gone, even though I did not make an extra time correction!

Pierre Neirinck noted that Lutz Schindler, who also used the DCF77 time signals, had a similar time deviation last week. So I am now starting to believe that the problem was not with the camera at all: but with the Frankfurt time signals!

Oh, how I love Japanese electronics... (timing error issues)

Yep, it seems have a ~0.3 second timing devation again against other stations. Here's two messages I sent out in our tracking network today, summing up the issue:

-----
Hmmm,

I am starting to worry again. Since resuming my observational activities here at the new site, I seem to be some 0.25-0.3 second off in timing again. E.g. these two sets:

Lacrosse 5 Rk
STA AZ EL ASP XTRK deltaT Perr
( 1) 2420 78.35 66.69 108.86 0.00 -0.06 0.035 <-- Russell, 5 Mar
( 2) 2420 106.00 72.99 104.58 0.00 -0.06 0.041 <-- Russell, 5 Mar
( 3) 4353 324.85 79.48 80.67 0.02 -0.29 0.207 <-- me, 6 Mar
( 4) 4353 5.83 84.79 87.43 0.01 -0.33 0.237 <-- me, 6 Mar

Lacrosse 5:

STA AZ EL ASP XTRK deltaT Perr
( 1) 2701 231.94 31.12 39.72 0.01 -0.00 0.012 Mar 03
( 2) 2701 235.93 49.68 54.66 0.00 -0.02 0.008 Mar 03
( 3) 2701 236.19 50.53 55.39 0.00 0.00 0.003 Mar 03
( 4) 6226 325.33 24.24 96.83 0.00 -0.01 0.004 Mar 04
( 5) 6226 327.32 24.03 98.43 0.00 -0.02 0.006
( 6) 6226 328.97 23.82 99.76 0.01 0.01 0.008
( 7) 6226 333.11 23.20 103.11 0.02 0.04 0.017
( 8) 2018 165.10 15.25 59.66 0.00 -0.02 0.006
( 9) 2018 147.53 20.13 74.61 0.01 -0.05 0.016
(10) 2018 136.04 21.67 84.19 0.00 -0.06 0.018
(11) 2018 132.70 21.89 86.95 0.01 -0.06 0.019
(12) 2018 120.60 21.84 96.93 0.01 -0.02 0.008
(13) 710 147.36 37.57 83.08 0.01 -0.36 0.141
(14) 2018 98.36 18.25 115.52 0.00 -0.04 0.009
(15) 4353 242.78 47.55 52.67 0.01 -0.28 0.102 <-- me, Mar 04
(16) 4353 243.07 51.50 55.99 0.00 -0.30 0.119 <-- me, Mar 04

I did not alter anything in my camera settings this time, as far as I am aware of. I will re-check the GPS measurement of my new location, although I doubt a small error in that would lead to a 0.3s time difference...

- Marco :-/
-----

I just did a new GPS measurement on the courtyard. Got a good fix, and it yields the same coordinates with differences only in the second decimal of the arcseconds. So no problem there it seems.

Also checked the DCF77 radio-controled clock I use. It seems to be okay when I check it against my computer clock, which is synchronized each 5 minutes by an NSTP server.

So it must be the camera again, or the person pushing the camera button (me). Interestingly, it is again an ~0.3 second error, just as the last time such a deviation popped up, half a year ago. Oh, how I love Japanese electronics....

I realized I *did* alter my camera settings shortly in December, while taking night-time images of snow in Delft. But I changed them back to the old settings again afterwards, as far as I am aware of. Again: oh, how I love Japanese electronics... From now on I'll refrain from doing anything to the manual settings again.

Well, I guess I have to work with another empirical 0.3 seconds correction again from now on. By making such a correction to the datasets I reported the past two weeks, my data come quite in line with the other data again.

- Marco
-----

A no-show of Lacrosse 5, and timings off again?

Quicksat predicted two good near-zenith passes this evening, of both the Lacrosse 5 Rocket stage (2005-016B, #28647) and the payload itself, Lacrosse 5 (2005-016A, #28646).

The rocket stage indeed made a fine pass: it was easily visible at magnitude ~ +2 with the naked eye, being somewhat irregular in brightness. The trail shows up well on the image with no dificulty in the measurements. It was about 0.3 seconds early according to my data: as my latest Lacrosse 5 data obtaineed a few nights ago were some 0.25 seconds early too, I start to worry again...

The payload, Lacrosse 5 itself, made a no-show an hour later. Predicted to be mag. +2.1 it should have been easily visible: but I failed to see it with the naked eye and there is no trace of it on the obtained image too.

Flaring Lacrosse 5

This image was obtained by me this evening and shows Lacrosse 5 (2005-016A, #28646) while flaring. Here, it goes from about mag. +1.0 to +0.5. It reached peak brightness of about mag. 0 some 5 seconds after the end of this exposure, short before shadow entry.

The trail is well defined, so no trouble measuring it. A good set of data, no doubt. Useful data, as it seems Lacrosse 5 has just manouvred (see posts by Scott Campbell and Ted Molczan on the SeeSat-list here and here) and its brightness behaviour is odd the past few days (see messages here and here).

Snow

We are having snow here. Yesterday I had some hopes as there were some sharp clearings inbetween the snowstorms: but alas, not during the relevant passes.

Defeated by clouds again

After a whole day with a bright blue frosty sky, mid-altitude stratus clouds moved in around dusk. Alas, a pity, because there were a number of potential targets this evening.

Lacrosse 5 and Murphy...

Soooooo.......I had the alarm clock set to try to catch an early morning pass (4:47 am local time) of Lacrosse 5 with the camera...

And I've seen Lacrosse 5 indeed, starting at a blazing mag. -1 descending below Corona Borealis...... Nice......!

Even have it on photograph indeed....no joke, I realy have.

BUT......

Yep, screwed it up indeed. So no measurements... * beats head on desk *

I slept through the first alarm of my alarm clock. Then was woken up by the repeat 8 minutes later. 8 vital minutes later, because now I had to hurry...

To make a short story long....was in a hurry....rushed outside onto the courtyard....set up tripod and installed camera, looked up to point it.....: saw a blazing -1 Lacrosse, already there....

Panic! Open that camera you fool!

* click *

Arrrghhhh, wrong camera setting!!! Shoot shoot shoot shoot!

Basically, I forgot to set the 10-second timer and pre-select infinity focus. I have a nice picture with a bright trail but as the timing calibration of the exposure start depends on the camera settings, it's worthless for astrometry.

There was a gnashing of teeth in the night that must have woken up many of the neighbours.....

First observations at the new location!

After a long period with grey skyscapes and generally uncomfy weather, the skies turned into a beautiful blue today. So I ran Quicksat to see what passes I could target.

Only low passes (all below 50 degrees altitude) were available. Lacrosse 3 turned out to be just too faint at this low pass. The Lacrosse 5 Rocket body (2005-016B, #28647) however, was well visible, passing just under Polaris at 48 degrees altitude. It varied in brightness between roughly +2.0 and +3.0. The trail showed up well enough on the image to measure it and yield good results.

This is a perfect example of a pass that could not have been targetted at my old location (which, remember, had no view to the north).

I had some trouble initially with Astrorecord, who it seemed could not get a good fit on the stars. After only a few stars, it started to report outrageous fits of 99'98" and all kinds of strange messages popped up. Initially, I thought this might be due to the fact that I was measuring stars strewn around the celestial pole. After some time however, it transpired that one single misidentification (!) of a star f***** up the fit: I had mistaken 24 Cas for 18 Cas (Cassiopeia was at the edge of the frame). With that corrected, the fits yielded the typical 30" accuracy.

From Cospar 4352 to 4353

The move has been completed! Station 4352 has changed location and become 4353.

Last Sunday we transferred all my belongings to my new home, last days I spend unpacking, and although the later has not been completely finished yet, I am more or less settled here now.

Now waiting for clear skies....

Suitsat becomes Mutesat....

Last night during an EVA, ISS station commander Bill McArthur and flight engineer Valery Tokarev released an old Orlan spacesuit into space. NASA-TV had some wonderful footage of the spacewalk and release of the expired suit, which was hurled into space by hand by Tokarev.

As a gimick, the suit had been fitted with a.o. a battery-powered radio transmitter, transmitting a 1 Watt signal at 145.990 MHz. The transmission should have included voice greetings, telemetry spoken by a voice synthesizer, and slow-scan TV.

Should: because all radio amateurs eagerly waiting for a pass behind their receivers were disappointed. Suitsat ceased transmitting very shortly after release and thus rather became "Mutesat". I was behind my scanner-radio too, during the 6:06 and 7:41 UTC passes, to hear only static.

See also:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/station/exp12/060203evawrap.html

New Cospar ID and coordinates

With the move, SatTrackCam will of course get a new Cospar ID. Pierre Neirinck has assigned my new location the Cospar ID number 4353.

The coordinates of the new site are:

WGS84: 52d 09' 14.84" N, 4d 29' 26.90" E
(52.15412 N, 4.49081 E)
0 meter ASL

This is 0.55 km due south of my previous location.

The new home of SatTrackCam...!

I got the keys to my new home yesterday. So I have been amusing myself with measuring up the apartment, making a map of it, and trying to fit my existing furniture in it. In the configuration I finally settled on, I would have room for an extra wardrobe, an extra part to my bookshelves (doubling it in size, and this is much needed as in my current home the books pile up against the wall because of a lack of available shelve space) and a low extra cabinet to extend my desk. So, a trip to IKEA on the 11th.....

I also made a GPS measurement in the central courtyard of the complex, and of course shot several pictures, a few of which can be seen below.

The open door on the right of the 3rd image is the entrance to the small hall giving acces to my appartment, and the larger window and the small window to the left of it belong to my appartment. The kitchen shown in the pictures will be replaced with a new one this month by the housing corporation.

So: now let the painting and other indoor construction works begin.... I have settled the move itself on February 12th.

Beautiful Stardust re-entry movie!

Stardust Capsule Reentry Movie filmed from NASA DC-8 aircraft (requires Quicktime)

This is a stunning movie of the Stardust capsule re-entry, taken from aboard the NASA Airborne Mission's DC-8 aircraft. Watch the capsule become visible and rapidly brightening amidst the starry sky, and develop a beautiful plasma tail.

For me personally also fun to hear the voice of mission PI Dr Peter Jenniskens, who's a long standing friend of mine (he's the one a.o. saying: "Plasma lines detected"). We used to observe meteors together when he was still in Hollland.

SatTrackCam is going to move!!!

SatTrackCam is going to move! I am moving to a new home here in Leiden in mid-February. The move will be less than 1 kilometer in distance, but it will greatly benefit my observing capabilities.

In my current location, I don't have a balcony or garden. So I observe from my window opening, which is looking south, and therefore can only target objects that pass south of the zenith. This greatly limits the number of targettable passes for me currently, especially during the winter. This is one of the reasons for my inactivity the past few months.

I will be moving now to a small appartment located in one of the typical former "almshouses" (Dutch: "Hofje"). An "almshouse" consists of a series of small homes surrounding a secluded courtyard. These almshouses were usually founded in the 17th to early 19th century by a rich maecenas, usually intended for a specific goal: e.g. housing impoverished Preacher's widows. They are very secluded, and form little oasis of tranquility in the town.

The courtyard of the almshouse I will move to, will permit me access to the full zenith, down to at least 40 degrees in the north, east and south, and about 15-20 degrees towards west. This will certainly increase the number of passes I will be able to target. And as the courtyard is accessible only to the inhabitants of the almshouse, its a safe environment too.

I'll get the key to the new appartment on February 1st, and plan to move mid-February. Its not too far from the historic old Leiden Observatory.

Failed - trail too faint (Lacrosse 4)

Saturday, October 15, 2005, 20:49:24

Just tried to image a pass of Lacrosse 4.

The almost full moon was already up, and it was
slightly hazy. Hence, the sky background came out
very bright on the image. The trail of Lacrosse 4
is visible on the image, but too faint to reliably
measure, alas.

Observations of Russell Eberst on the 13th yield
similar delta T's for Lacrosse 4 as my observations
from the 10th.

Clear sky and fine Lacrosse trail

Clear skies again at last! Yesterday and today the sky
was bright blue. Yesterday evening I managed to get
two fine pictures of Lacrosse 4 (00-047A, #26473), one
as it sailed across Andromeda at about +2.0, the other
while it was entering eclipse in Pegasus (hence only
the start of the track was measured for the latter
image).

The first image yielded a splendid well-defined trail.

In all, 3 positions. The 3rd point is perhaps less good
as the 1st and 2nd, as the trail already was becoming
faint due to eclipse entry.

The delta T's are quite consistent internally: the
satellite was 1.5 seconds late relative to Mike's 10 day
old elset 05273.79219807.

Foggy skies and Lacrosses

Saturday, October 08, 2005, 00:46:14 LT

After many days of bad weather, I tried to capture a
spy bird again. Earlier this evening I obtained a meagre
one point on Lacrosse 3 (97-064 A), obtained under very
poor conditions. The sky was very hazy (fog). Only the
beginpoint of the trail did I trust and report.

Tried to capture Lacrosse 2 as well somewhat earlier, but
the sky was still too bright and foggy.

Bad weather

We have bad weather here for over a week now. That is
not unusual in this time of the year. Expect the next
3-4 months to see only sporadic observing activity due
to this.

So for the moment, it is back to asteroids.....