OT - My latest Asteroid Discovery, 2012 SM58

It has been a while, but I finally have bagged another asteroid discovery to ad to the ones I already discovered earlier.

The new discovery appeared in MPEC 2012-T11 today as 2012 SM58 (packed designation: K12S58M). It is a high-inclination main belt asteroid.

On September 21, I was using SSON's 61-cm Cassegrain in search of an object discovered by another observatory, when I noted a faint  mag. +19.5 object moving near the upper edge of the images.  It is indicated in the blink below (which shows only part of the original images):

click image to enlarge

The images were made at a high declination (+35 degrees) well away from the ecliptic. A check showed that no known object was at this position. So, a new, high inclination asteroid? At first I was not entirely sure. The object came out of the glare of a bright star, so it was a possibility that it was a reflection in the telescope's optical system. In the first of the 4 images (taken 15 minutes apart) it was difficult to see, probably because it was closer to the glare of the star. After measuring it in Astrometrica, and trying an orbit fit with FindOrb, it did however seem to fit an asteroid orbit.

I decided to wait until I had been able to image it a second time before sending in the observations to the Minor Planet Center. Bad weather on the two telescopes I use (in Arizona and California) however meant it took six days before I could image it again, on September 27th. With a Vaïsälä orbit fit to the Sept 21 observations to go by only, 6 days is already enough to create clear positional uncertainties. I was lucky though: the object was visible (near the image edges) in the new images.

While I was quite sure it was the same object, FindOrb initially had some trouble linking the 21 Sep and 27 Sep data, so I decided to send in both sets under different temporary designations: LaMa 502 and LaMa 504. The MPC sent me back a message indicating they thought it concerned the same object:   " LaMa504 (LaMa502 "

More bad weather and the entry of a full moon next again prevented new observations, untill I was able to image it again on October 4 and 5. Below is the blink of the October 5 images:

click image to enlarge

The new discovery appeared in MPEC 2012-T11 today as 2012 SM58 (packed designation: K12S58M). It is a MBIIb asteroid with an inclination of  21 degrees. Orbital elements (from the MPC):

Epoch 2012 Sept. 10.0 TT = JDT 2456180.5                MPC
M 344.68019              (2000.0)
n   0.21885053     Peri.  110.11057          T = 2456250.50125 JDT
a   2.7271204      Node   273.19478          q =     2.3235562
e   0.1479818      Incl.   21.08086
P   4.50           H   16.7           G   0.15

Assuming a typical albedo, the absolute brightness of H 16.7 suggests an object about 1.5 km large.

The orbit in our solar system:

(click images to enlarge)

[UPDATED] The 21 September fireball: a small Aten asteroid?

-- edited/corrected 25/9 15:25 UT. I initially made a small error in the used trajectory azimuth (not properly taking into account effects of a spherical earth). That is corrected, but the conclusions do not alter. --

In my previous post I presented clear evidence that the splendid fireball seen over NW Europe on September 21st, 2012, was a meteoric fireball. I also presented a first, very preliminary idea of its trajectory.

Based on that trajectory, I can now present some very first, very cautious conclusions about the heliocentric orbit of this meteoroid.The solutions strongly favour an identification as an Aten asteroid.

The entry azimuth of the fireball from the reconstructed preliminary trajectory is around 80 95 degrees. Based on observations by Ramon van der Hilst who observed the fireball from Bussloo, the estimated entry angle for the fireball is about 5 degrees only: a very shallow, earthgrazing angle which explains the long trajectory. (I asked Ramon to estimate the angle of the fireball with respect to the horizontal at the moment Ramon was looking roughly perpendicular to the preliminary trajectory. That angle, about 5 degrees as Ramon reports, should be close to the entry angle)

I used these values and an 18-20 km speed estimate to compute a nominal heliocentric orbit: and then played around by widely varying the values for speed, entry angle, entry azimuth around these nominal values.

The interesting point is, that for all of these, I get an Aten orbit as a result. Aten asteroids are asteroids whose perihelion lies within the orbit of the earth and who's aphelion lies only just outside the orbit of the earth. They have a semi-major axis < 1.0 AU and aphelion (just) over 1 AU.

The aphelion values I get for the approximate fireball orbit, are in the range 1.0 - 1.15 1.05 AU, the semi-major axis values are in the range 0.9 to 0.6 AU. Solutions based on higher speeds (I varied between 12 km/s and 30 km/s in my calculations) favour the slightly larger aphelion values and shorter semi-major axis.

A wide variation in entry azimuth (I tried between 60 and 110 120 degrees) and entry angle (I tried for values between 5 and 45 degrees, the latter clearly a too large value by the way) does not alter this picture much: they all result in Aten orbits.

I need to alter the trajectory direction to values significantly larger than entry from a direction of  120 degrees (well past due east) to get aphelion values that start to get well beyond 1.15 AU and semi-major axis values > 1.0 AU.

For the current very preliminary nominal trajectory solution (entry azimuth ~82 ~95 degrees, entry angle ~5 degrees) I get these values when varying the assumed entry speed of the fireball:

[editted table 15:25 UT to reflect new calculations/correction of error]

Vini    q    Q     a     e     i

12.0   0.82  1.00  0.91  0.10  6.5
15.0   0.46  1.02  0.74  0.39  15.0
18.0   0.31  1.04  0.67  0.55  20.7
20.0   0.24  1.05  0.65  0.62  24.8
25.0   0.16  1.09  0.62  0.76  37.4
27.0   0.13  1.11  0.62  0.79  43.7
30.0   0.11  1.14  0.62  0.83  54.5

Vini is the initial speed (in km/s), q the perihelion distance (in AU), Q the aphelion distance (in AU), a the semi-major axis (in AU), e the eccentricity, i the inclination.

These values should be taken with caution and only as rough indications. There are (still) large uncertainties in the trajectory and entry angle, as well as the speed of the fireball. They do show however (as well as variations on the trajectory not listed here) that an Aten-orbit is the implied solution.

The Earth encountered the meteoroid close to the meteoroid's aphelion, when it was moving almost in parallel with the Earth.

-------------------------------
NOTE / UPDATE 26/09/2012, 19:25 UT: There is some confusion on the web regarding my analysis and the "retrograde"/ "prograde" character of this object.
The "retrograde"character is only true for an earth-centered orbit (i.e., an object orbiting the earth, such as an artificial satellite). An east-west movement in that case means it is "retrograde" (against the motion of the earth's rotation).
This is not necessarily the case for a sun-centered orbit however. An east-west moving object then can be (and is, in this case!) in a normal, "prograde" orbit (=moving in the same direction around the sun as the planets). The difference is the frame of reference: earth-centric versus sun-centric.
So beware: the "retrograde" orbit refers to what the orbit would be for an earth-orbiting satellite (which this object was not). The Aten heliocentric orbit presented here, is however prograde.

More on the 21 September 2012 fireball: why it definitely was a meteor

I should have done this analysis earlier but did not have the time available until now. What follows now is a quick and back-of-the-envelope kind of calculation, but in my (not so) humble opinion it is adequate to the question at hand.

It concerns, of course, the splendid slow fireball seen widely over NW Europe near 21:55 UT on 21 September 2012. I posted on it before, focussing on saying "no" to the suggestion that this could have concerned a satellite reentry. In the post that now follows, I further strengthen the conclusion that it was not a satellite reentry, but a genuine meteoric fireball.

The map above gives a quick (and not particularly accurate) back-of-the-envelope reconstruction of the fireball trajectory. It is based on trajectory descriptions from Bussloo in the Netherlands and Dublin in Ireland: by taking reported altitudes (with respect to stars) and general directions of reported start and endpoints, and an assumed altitude of 50 km, the trajectory above is what approximately results. (update 19:10 UT, 24 Sep: an updated version of the map is at the bottom of this post).

The resulting trajectory is some 1000-1200 km long. In what now follows, I have taken 1100 km as the distance travelled by this fireball.

Observers near the western and eastern ends of the trajectory would probably not see the complete trajectory. Observers approximately mid-way, in mid-Britain, would potentially see most if not all of the trajectory (from experience I know you can see bright fireballs from distances of 500 km).

Observers report durations between 20-60 seconds: most video's on the web suggest a 40+ seconds duration.

It would take a reentering satellite travelling at 8 km/s (the orbital speed at decay altitudes) about 138 seconds or roughly 2.25 minutes to travel this distance. While the reported fireball durations are long, none of the reports nor videos comes even remotely close to that value.

A meteoric fireball travelling at the lowest speed possible for such an object, 11.8 km/s, would take 93 seconds to travel that distance. This is still longer than almost all of the reports suggest, but clearly getting closer.

If we take an estimated duration of 60 seconds, the 1100 km trajectory length results in a speed of  approximately 18 km/s.

18 km/s is a very reasonable speed for a slow, asteroidal origin fireball.

(it is, let me repeat, also way too fast for a satellite reentry).

Meteorite dropping fireballs typically have speeds between 11.8 and 27 km/s. A speed near 18 km/s sits squarely in the middle of that speed interval.

(update: diagram added 14:45 UT, 24 Sep)

(click diagram to enlarge)

The 60 seconds probably represents the upper boundary value for the duration of the fireball. If we take a shorter duration of 40 seconds, the speed already increases to 27.5 km/s.

This quick back-of-the-envelope reconstruction therefore shows that this must have been a meteoric fireball, quite likely of asteroidal origin, and we definitely can exclude a satellite reentry.

The fragmentation described and filmed is not unusual for meteorite dropping fireballs (see the video's of the Peekskill meteorite fall in my previous post). The object probably entered the atmosphere under a very shallow angle, which together with the slow speed explains the unusually long duration of the event.

Meteors of this kind are rare, but they have been seen before. Think of the Peekskill meteorite fall, but also the famous 1972 daylight fireball over the Grand Tetons (that had a duration of over 100 seconds) and the Cyrilid Meteor Procession from 1913 (that lasted minutes).

Note: a previous post gives a number of other lines of evidence which likewise suggest this fireball was not man-made space debris.

UPDATE: a further update is given in a new post: a very cautious orbital solution suggests an Aten orbit.

Note 2: on how I made this quick and (emphasis) rough trajectory reconstruction. I took observations that contain clear sky locations: e.g. a sighting from Dublin stating it went "through the pan of the Big Dipper"; the description from Bussloo observatory in the Netherlands; and later adding a.o. a photo from Halifax, UK, showing it just above the tail of Ursa Major. These descriptions can be turned into directions and elevations. Next, I drew lines from these sighting points towards the indicated directions, marking distances roughly corresponding to 30, 50 and 80 km altitude as indicated by the observed elevation [ distance = altitude / tan(elevation) ]. Near the start of the trajectory I marked 50 and 80 km, for Britain and Ireland I marked 30 and 50 km. These points then provide you with a rough trajectory.
From Dublin the object passed through North towards west. From Bussloo the object started NE (azimuth 60 degrees): these are important points of information too as it shows that the object started at least as far east as the Dutch-German border (and more likely over Sleswig-Holstein in N-Germany) and had its endpoint at least as far west as the northern part of Ireland.

Above: Updated map version, 24 Sep 19:10 GMT , also showing the principle of how it was reconstructed for three sighting locations. With thanks to Ramon van der Hilst for providing more detailed information on sky trajectory as seen from Bussloo (NL) on request.

Imaging a near-zenith pass of the new NOSS 3-6 pair (NROL-36)

As I wrote earlier, the NRO launched a new pair of NOSS satellites, NOSS 3-6,  on September 13th, as NROL-36. Two days after the launch, I got my first look at these objects, albeit under very poor conditions (see my post here).

Sunday morning, 10 days after the launch, the cloud cover broke and I finally got a renewed and much better view of the two NOSS objects and the Centaur r/b from the launch, during a near-zenith pass. Some very thin cirrus clouds (dispersed aircraft contrails in part) were in the sky. These eerie pictures, taken shortly after 5 am local time on the 23rd, are the result (click them to appreciate them in full glory):

(click images to enlarge)

the NOSS 3-6 duo

the NOSS 3-6 Centaur r/b

The top image shows the payloads, 2012-048A and 2012-048P, traversing Perseus (alpha Persei star association in top). The P-object is leading over the A-object: movement is from lower right to upper left. I could see both payloads naked-eye, at about mag. +4.

Currently, the two satellites are still notably further apart than operational NOSS-es are, as they are still in the process of active manoeuvering. Ted Molczan believes that eventually, the A-object will probably overtake the P-object and become the leading object once the final operational configuration is reached.

The second image shows the Centaur r/b (2012-048N) traversing the Cassiopeia-Perseus border (h and chi Persei in top, stars of Cassiopeia near the bottom). It was very bright, initially +1 just after shadow exit, then +2. I could see no clear periodic brightness variation: the slow tumbling that was apparent in the days right after lauch and which might have been due to remnant fuel outgassing according to Ted Molczan, apparently has subdued.


The USA 237 r/b

On the 16th, I imaged the geostationary satellite USA 237, which is perhaps a 6th Mentor (see the bottom part of my previous post here).

On the 19th, I used the 37-cm Rigel Cassegrain of Winer Observatory (MPC 857) in Arizona to image the USA 237 r/b of this launch (2012-034B) :

(click image to enlarge)

In addition to the USA 237 r/b, I also did one of my periodic observations on Prowler (90-097E) that same night using the same telescope.

Fireball over N-Europe on 21 September 2012, 21:45 GMT was likely NOT a reentry

UPDATE (24/9/2012): more and definite arguments that this was not a reentering satellite, can be read here in my follow-up post from Sep 24th. This includes a first rough trajectory reconstruction for this fireball.

Reports are pouring in from The Netherlands, Britain, Ireland and other N-European countries about a very bright, extremely slow fragmenting fireball appearing around 21:45 - 21:55 GMT (23:45 -23:55 CEST) on the evening of 21 September 2012.

Various video's have been posted on Youtube, notably by observers from Britain (large parts of the Netherlands were clouded out, including the all-sky stations):





Because of the unusually long duration and slow movement, some people have suggested the possibility of a satellite reentry. For various reasons, this is however very unlikely.

Multiple reports make clear the object was moving from east to west. A report of observers from Bussloo Observatory, the Netherlands, for examples states that the fireball appeared in the north, moving from Perseus  to Bootes, almost horizontally from east to west. Similar reports (e.g. here and here) come from Ireland.

Almost all non-polar satellites move prograde,  from west to east (or north-south and v.v. for a polar orbit). An east to west movement would necessitate the object to have a retrograde orbit (meaning that it moves counter to the earth's direction of rotation). Such objects are extremely rare: they literally amount to only a handful of objects (including the US FIA Radar satellites, and the Israeli Ofeq/Shavit satellites/rb). For this reason, it is extremely unlikely that this fireball was a reentering satellite.

Update 24 Sep: in the comments to this blog post, the issue was raised of the potential reentry of a classified object. However, the larger classified pieces are tracked by us amateurs. We have no likely decay candidates among the retrograde objects that we track. We can account for and hence exclude the FIA's for example (the rocket bodies of that launch were deliberately de-orbitted right after launch so are no candidates either). The Israeli Ofeq/Shavit are no candidates as their orbital inclinations never take them over the Netherlands and the British Isles. And there are simply no other suitable retrograde objects -- end of update.

There are moreover no unclassified reentry candidates for this date listed by USSTRATCOM on their space-track portal. Given the brightness of the fireball, this should have been a seizable chunk of space debris, that really would have been tracked (and predicted). Again, this makes it very unlikely that this fireball was a satellite reentry.

While the duration of the fireball is unusual, it is not unprecedented. In many ways, the descriptions and video are reminiscent of the Peekskill fireball that dropped meteorites near Peekskill in 1992:

(below: two video's of Peekskill fireball, 1992)

It is therefore my opinion that the 21 September fireball was most likely of meteoric origin: a chunk of asteroid. Alas, any surviving remains appear to have splashed down in sea (update: or possibly Scotland - N. Ireland).

The duration of the event, though not unprecedented, is certainly unusual and for this reason, I am saying "most likely not" rather than "certainly not".

UPDATE (12:45 GMT, 22 Sep):  another bright fireball was widely seen from the US and Canada that same night near 20:30 GMT. There was at least one hour inbetween the two events, so they do not appear to be related (i.e. they do not concern the same fireball).

UPDATE 2 (13:30 GMT, 22 Sep): Suggestions that the fireball might be related to Chinese CZ-4 space debris, catalogue #26213, are plainly incorrect. That object (and any fragments of it) are in a 98 degree polar orbit. This is completely incompatible with the reported movement of the fireball. As seen from Bussloo in the Netherlands and Dublin in Ireland, the fireball moved perpendicular, not parallel, to the orbital plane of this Chinese space debris (and that of any related fragments).

 IMPORTANT UPDATE 3 (24/9/2012): more and definite arguments that this was not a reentering satellite, can be read here.

Europe's new weather satellite MetOp-B

On September 17, a Soyuz rocket launched from Baikonur brought Europe's newest weather satellite in an 805 x 810 km polar orbit: MetOp-B (2012-049A). She joins her sister-ship MetOp-A launched in 2006. In total, three of these polar-orbiting satellites are planned.

(click image to enlarge)

Yesterday evening, two days after launch, it was briefly clear in Leiden. With scattered clouds in the sky (see the streaks in the upper right corner of the image) I shot the above image of Metop-B passing through Lyra (brightest star is Vega).

A very faint second trail can be seen near the right end of the brighter MetOp-B trail, going obliquely upwards. This is an old Russian r/b (1982-096B) from the 1982 launch of Kosmos 1410.

MetOp-B's older sister ship, MetOp-A, is known among amateurs for producing bright flares (up to mag. -2) when the solar panels reflect sunlight to the observer (see my video here). Hopefully MetOp-B will show this spectacular behaviour as well.

In addition to MetOp-B, the short observation window amidst the clouds also permitted to observe FIA Radar 2 (2012-014A).

Tracking the new NOSS 3-6 (NROL-36) launched September 13th, and imaging USA 237 (NROL-15) and SDS 2-2

NROL-36 (NOSS 3-6)

At 21:39 UTC on September 13th, 2012, the NRO launched NROL-36 from Vandenberg AFB. The launch vehicle was an Atlas V containing a classified NRO payload in addition to a number of cubesats. Several analysts already suspected the classified payload of this launch to concern a new duo of US Navy NOSS satellites.

That suspicion appears to be born out by the first observations of the launched objects, which show two satellites in close formation, typical of a NOSS formation.

The Centaur last stage was the first object from this launch to be observed, by Björn Gimle in Sweden, who observed it 5 hours after launch, and then by BWGS chair Bram Dorreman in Belgium 1.5 hours later, who remarked it was variable in brightness. Alas I was clouded out in Leiden at that moment. Eleven hours after launch, Kevin Fetter in Canada observed it next. Over the following day Russell Eberst in Scotland and Scott Tilley in Canada added more observations.

The payloads were first observed by Kevin Fetter in Canada near 9:43 UTC (Sep 14), 12 hours after launch. Scott Tilley, also in Canada, next observed them on the 15th near 12:34 UT.

On the morning of the 16th, 2 days and 5 hours after the launch, it was clear in Leiden allowing me to join the chase. I (photographically) observed the Centaur r/b pass at 2:49 UTC (see image below) and then the payloads at 2:55 UTC (Sep 16).

The NROL-36 Centaur booster

(click image to enlarge)

The observations were done under difficult conditions: it was somewhat hazy, the passes were at very low altitude due east (only 14 degrees elevation for the Centaur and 21 degrees elevation for the payloads), and the phase angles for the objects were unfavourable, resulting in dim magnitudes (around +7 for the payloads). The resulting images (one of them below) are therefore not quite pretty: even with use of the 1.4/85mm SamYang lens the trails were so faint that they were marginally visible at best. As reported earlier by Scott Tilley, the leading object indeed seemed to be somewhat variable (on some images it wasn't visible at all).

The NROL-36 payloads (NOSS 3-6)

(click image to enlarge)

Over the next days, I'll hopefully be able to obtain much better imagery during more favourable passes (this morning I was alas clouded out again, however....)

USA 237 (Mentor 6?)

That same morning, following the NROL-36 related observations, I took a few images of the area near the bright geostationary Mentor 4 (USA 202, 2009-001A). These images not only recorded this 3-year-old Mentor, but also the geostationary satellite USA 237 (2012-034A), a classified NRO payload launched from Cape Canaveral as NROL-15 on 29 June 2012, employing an Atlas IV-Heavy as launch vehicle.

These were my first observations of this object: tracking of this object over the summer was done mostly by Greg Roberts in South Africa (who was the first to discover the object) and Peter Wakelin in Britain. Over the summer it had slowly been drifting westwards: as of mid-September 2012 it appears to have stabilized at 47.8 E. For me in Leiden it is currently located at 20 degrees elevation in azimuth 129 degrees (low SE), about 6 degrees separated from Mentor 4 in the sky.

USA 237 (NROL-15)

(click image to enlarge

The identity of this object is still provisional. There have been some thoughts that NROL-15 launched a stealth Misty satellite in LEO/MEO and then progressed to put a decoy (the object designated as USA 237) in geostationary orbit. USA 237 is very bright however (about mag. +8), ranking it among the brightest geostationary objects in the sky, the Mentor SIGINTs. As Ted Molczan showed, they seem very similar in terms of absolute brightness. The likeliness can be well seen in the photographic comparison below, which shows Mentor 4 and USA 237 (the crops come from one and the same image):

(click image to enlarge)

This gives reason to think that NROL-15/USA 237 is perhaps a sixth Mentor SIGINT (i.e., it is Mentor 6).


SDS 2-2

As by-catch of the NROL-36 payload and Centaur observations, I also obtained my first observations of the geostationary SDS satellite SDS 2-2 (USA 67, 1990-097B). It is located at an elevation of only 16.5 degrees, very low in the east for me. To my surprise, it was rather bright and easily visible in the 5-second exposures, of which the one below is one:

 (click image to enlarge)

Imaging MiTEx 2

In 2006, the USA launched two experimental geosynchronous satellites, MiTEx 1 and MiTEx 2 (2006-024A and 2006-024B). MiTEx is an acronym that stands for Micro-satellite Technology Experiment. These small satellites were reportedly a technology demonstration and a project of DARPA, the US Air Force and US Navy. Being small (225 kg each) and hence difficult to detect, they explored the possibility of covertly sneaking up on and inspecting other satellites. In this sense, they appear to be part of the Prowler legacy.

In 2009, both the MiTEx satellites were used to inspect the classified US military DSP-23 satellite which had malfunctioned on-orbit in 2008 and had started to drift, physically endangering other satellites and interfering with their radio communications. This inspection was actually observed by amateur trackers in the UK and South Africa.

click image to enlarge

Since both satellites are small, they are faint and difficult to image. It requires large instruments. On 11 August 2012, I imaged MiTEx 2 using the 61-cm telescope of Sierra Stars Observatory. It is the faint trail in the image above (which is a 30-second CCD exposure guided on the stars).

This is not the first time though that I have imaged one of the MiTEx-es  (for example, the image of MiTEx 1 here, which happens to be the last positive observation before we lost that object, perhaps due to a manoeuvre: in fact, it was already slightly off its predicted position that March 15).

"Spying on the spooks" and other recent media coverage of my activities

Jeff Shear has just published a background piece on amateur satellite observations, largely based on my activities, in the Pacific Standard: "Spying on the Spooks".

Earlier this year, Ann Finkbeiner wrote a similar piece for the "The Last Word on Nothing" science blog: "Watching the Watchers".

A few minor corrections to the "Spying on the Spooks" story: the total number of objects we track is closer to 300 (not 100), and I didn't discover the asteroid (183294) that was named after me: Stefan Kürti/NEAT did.

CBERS 2B flash pattern

click image to enlarge

Last night I set up the camera with a Tamron 2.8/17-50mm lens set at f3.2/17mm to run automatically (using an Aputure timer), in order to catch some Perseids.

AS part of the image series, I captured a satellite showing a regular flash pattern. The top image above is a stack of 7 images of 20s each, showing the repeated flashing (including a brighter flare).

It turned out to be CBERS 2B (07-042A) which was launched from China on 19 September 2007 as the third Chinese-Brazilian Earth Resources Satellite. It ceased operations in June 2010.

By measuring the positions of the flashes and relating these to a recent TLE, I was able to determine the flash pattern. It is a combination of two series: one with flashes each 23.7s (series a), and another one (which includes the bright flare) with flashes each 47.4s (series b). The latter is the double of the series a period. The sequence of flashes is a-a-b-a-a-b-a-a-b but the b-flashes are not nicely in the middle of the a-series flashes.

click diagram to enlarge

The two series probably relate to different reflective surfaces. The flashes from series a are conspicuously orange, while those from series b are bluish-white.

click image to enlarge

As can be seen on the CBERS website, the satellite body itself is wrapped in orange insulation foil, suggesting the orange flashes could be reflections from the satellite body. The bluish-white flashes could be from the solar panels. The satellite would then rotate once each 94.8 seconds during which 2 solar panel flares and 4 body flares (4 sides of the cubus) can be seen.

CBERS 2B was not the only satellite captured flaring this night: I'll report on the other later. Amongst others, Envisat was seen flaring again.

Perseids

I indeed captured some meteors as well: 7 Perseids and one sporadic meteor. Here is a nice Perseid:

click image to enlarge

OT: night-sky time lapse, Dolomites

The movie above, which you should see on full resolution rather than in the small embedded version above, is a time-lapse I made using images shot during my holidays in the Dolomites.

The movie starts with imagery shot from Aldein (Aldino) at 1188m over a 4h42m period on July16. Apart from stars and  at about 20s in the movie the Milky Way entering the FOV, a number of satellites (and aircraft) are visible.

The movie ends with a (too) short clip of stars circling the celestial pole, based on a 25 minute image series shot from Vajolet at 2238m, in the Dolomites properly, on 23 July.

All images were made using the Canon EOS 60D + Tamron 2.8/17-50mm at 17mm, 2000 ISO, 30-second exposures.

ENVISAT and other satellites flaring over the Italian Dolomites

During the second half of July, I travelled through northern Italy, including an 8-day mountain hike from mountain hut to mountain hut through the high Alpine parts (up to 2770 m) of the Rosengarten Dolomites. The latter mountains are truely marvelous, and perhaps the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen.

During two clear evenings I did some limited astrophotography: limited, as because of weight considerations I had only two lenses with me  (a Canon EF 100mm Macro and a Tamron 17-50mm zoom) . After all, we already had to carry 16 kg on our backs every day while scaling the mountain.

click image to enlarge

The image above was shot at 2238m altitude from Rifugio Vajolet on July 23rd. It shows ENVISAT (02-009A) flaring. Since contact with this legendary Europe remote sensing satellite was lost on 8 April 2012, it appears to have started to tumble. Two brightness maxima (one brighter and one fainter preceding it) are visible on the original of the above 30 second exposure, and other (faint) maxima are visible on an earlier and on subsequent images.

click image to enlarge

A 45 image series (30s exposure each) from the same location was used to create the above image of startrails circling the celestial pole. The mountain at right is the 3004m high Kesselkügel.

click image to enlarge

A few days earlier (16 July), while at lower altitude (1188m) in Aldein (Aldino) where we visited the nearby Bletterbachschlucht, I shot this image of a double Iridium flare. The brighter of the two is Iridium 63, the other one is Iridium 14. The classified Japanese satellite IGS 7A (11-075A) can be seen as well as a fainter steady trail near the center of the image (the original image has 3 more very faint satellite trails as well). The bright star top right is Arcturus.

All images were made with a Canon EOS 60D at 2000 ISO (and part of image series driven by a programmable timer) using a Tamron 2.8/17-50mm set at 17mm.

The re-entry of IGS 1B on 26 July 2012

While I was away on holidays, the Japanese spy satellite IGS 1B (03-009B) that malfunctioned in March 2007, re-entered on 26 July 2012, over Polynesia.

The demise of this satellite was covered for over a year on this blog: as the satellite was weighing 1.2 tons and as it had an unknown amount of remnant fuel onboard, the uncontrolled reentry raised some questions and initial concerns (see coverage here).

The last amateur observations of the object were done by Mike Waterman (USA) on July 24th and Alain Figer (France) in evening twilight of July 25th. The last amateur orbital update by Ted Molczan based on a.o. Mike Waterman's observations, showed it to have descended to a 211 x 213 km orbit on July 24th and analysis of this dataset by this author using Alan Pickup's SatEvo suggests reentry on July 26, somewhere between approximately 9:50 and 10:50 UTC.

USSTRATCOM published a final TIP for IGS 1B on July 26th (that they did so for a classified object is unusual), placing re-entry at 26 July 2012, 09:52 +/- 2 min UTC, near 25 S, 186 E, which is near New Zealand. This is at the start of the reentry window given above and hence seems very reasonable even though the reentry coordinates are a verbatim copy (down to one decimal) of a pre-decay prediction issued at 7:34 UTC (only the uncertainty value has changed, from 2 hours to 2 minutes). No details on the orbital development in the final few revolutions were given.

The map below shows the USSTRATCOM determined reentry location and final trajectory. In principle, the re-entry could have been observed from the northern islands of New Zealand and potentially the Fiji-Tonga area. Note that only half a revolution later (about 30 minutes later) it would have passed over NW Europe and next west Africa.

click map to enlarge

The diagram below shows the orbital evolution in terms of apogee and perigee altitudes, from malfunction early 2007 to decay on 26 July 2012. It is based on orbital element sets calculated by Mike McCants and Ted Molczan from amateur observations, including mine:

click diagram to enlarge

2

IGS 1B was a nice object to observe over the past years: it was bright, and it was interesting to follow its orbital evolution towards decay. The observation that remains the most vivid imprint in my memory is the one that resulted in the picture below: on 2 September 2011, while I was watching and photographing a pass in a slightly hazy sky, the satellite brightly flared to at least magnitude -8 if not more: the brightest satellite flare I have ever seen. I was jumping up and down and yelling "WOOOOOWWWW!!!!" when this happened. It resulted in this wonderful, eerie picture:

click image to enlarge

A flashing GPS satellite (Navstar 39, USA 128)

This blog's readers will be familiar with the Global Positioning System (GPS). These US navigational satellites provide us with navigational aid, whether you are on a boat, aircraft, in a vehicle, hiking, or just using your cellphone. Our modern world would be nowhere without them.

But have you ever seen a GPS satellite?

click image to enlarge

In the evening of June 25 I by chance captured one of the 41 operational a GPS satellite that was decommisioned last year on photograph: Navstar 39 (USA 128, GPS 2A-27, 1996-056A). It showed up as a very bright small trail  and was flashing at a rate of  2-3 flashes per 10 seconds. Above is a compilation of the photographs taken (Canon EOS 60D with Samyang 1.4/85mm lens).

GPS satellites do not usually get this bright: the satellite was evidently flaring due to a favourable sun-satellite-observer line-up. As this is a decommisioned satellite, the flashing could be due (I am not sure) to the satellite having lost attitude control and being spinning.

30 (mostly) geostationary objects in one image

Click image to enlarge

The image above was made by me just after midnight of June 18-19, 2012. It is a single image taken with my new Canon EOS 60D and a SamYang 1.4/85mm lens (800 ISO, 10s exposure). It was shot from the center of Leiden town.

The image shows a 11 x 14 degrees wide field low in the south-southeastern sky, between 20 and 30 degrees elevation above the horizon. Diagonally over the image runs a part of the geostationary belt, at declination -7.4 deg for my location.

In this single image, as much as 30 mostly geostationary satellites are visible: 23 commercial geostationary satellites, 1 classified military geostationary satellite (Milstar 5, 2002-001A), and 6 rocket boosters.

I did a poor job with the focus of this image, resulting in a slight unsharpness (especially near the edges of the image). Yet, the number of  objects nevertheless visible in this small piece of low southern sky is amazing!

This is just one of several images I took that night. Apart from Milstar 5, a number of other classified (military) geostationary satellites were imaged and astrometry on them obtained.



PAN in it's new position at 37.9 E

One of these objects is PAN (2009-047A), an enigmatic satellite I have written about before. Here is an image from June 18-19:

click image to enlarge

One of the curious aspects of this strange classified geostationary satellite operated by an undisclosed agency (see Dwayne Day's article in The Space Review), is that it is very frequently repositioned. It recently did so again (see my imagery of May 16, when it was still on the move). It has now stopped drifting and taken up position at 37.9 deg E (a position it has occupied before) not far from Paksat 1R, as can be seen in the image above. A stray Atlas Centaur rocket booster passed the area as well when the image was taken.


Vortex 4 and Mercury 2

Other classified objects imaged include  the older geostationary satellites Vortex 4 (1984-009A) and Mercury 2 (96-026A), the latter of which currently also is on the move (it is probably being sent to a disposal orbit after reaching the end of its operational mission):

click image to enlarge

Vortex 4  (launched on 31 January 1984) and Mercury 2 (USA 118, launched on 24 April 1996) both are SIGINT (eaves-dropping) satellites, with the Mercury being a further advanced version of the Vortex.

In addition, a newer SIGINT satellite was imaged as well,  Mentor 4 (2009-001A, one that frequently features in this observational blog, as it is bright and easy to observe), and the object designated by our amateur network as  UNK 060616 (probably an old r/b).


Prowler, AEHF 1 and DSP F15 imaged from Winer observatory, USA

While the above imaging was all done from my home in the Netherlands, I also imaged a few objects 'remotely' using the UoI Rigel (MPC 857) 37-cm Cassegrain telescope at Winer Observatory, Sonoita, Arizona, USA.

The enigmatic Prowler (1990-097E), a clandestine launch from Space Shuttle mission STS-38 which has featured on this blog more often (read the intriguing story of Prowler here; plenty of suspense!) was imaged on June 19 and 22. On June 19 I also imaged the military communications satellite AEHF 1 (2010-039A), and on June 22 the old DSP Infra-red early-warning satellite DSP F15 (1990-095A). Images of these objects below:

click images to enlarge

Comet 185P/Petriew

In addition to all these satellites, two  Solar System Minor Bodies were imaged: 2012 LZ1 and 185P/Petriew.

I posted imagery of the June 15 fly-by of Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) 2012 LZ1 here before in my previous post, and obtained more astrometry on this object on subsequent nights. In addition, I obtained some imagery on the faint periodic comet 185P/ Petriew on June 22. Below is a stack of 5 images of 45s exposure each:

click image to enlarge

Not a pretty picture, but the comet was near magnitude +17 to +18! My astrometry has been included in MPEC 2012-M33 (22 June).


New camera: a Canon EOS 60D

I had completely forgotten to mention this: during the second half of May, my EOS 450D camera broke down. During a macro-session on Dragonflies, the shutter broke. Much to my regret.

I had the choice between having the shutter repaired (expensive), or buying a new camera. I choose the latter option, as the new generation of EOS cameras performs notably better than the 450D, especially in performance at high ISO (less noise). So I decided to upgrade.

The choice I made was for the Canon EOS 60D, an 18 MP DSLR with Digic IV processor. So far (and having mostly used it for "normal" photography for now) I very much like it!

Before I can use it on satellites in Low Earth Orbit, I'll first have to complete a calibration program with the camera. This calibration entails the delay between the moment you press the shutter button and the exposure is actually taken; and the real duration of exposures (a "10 second" exposure is not exactly 10.00 seconds). I have some preliminary calibration results by now, but it will take some time before I have final results and can start to use the camera regularly on satellites. For geostationary satellites (where the timing accuracy isn't that much of a factor; rather the astrometry is) the preliminary results I have mean I can already use it (as has been done, see this post).

OT: Near Earth Asteroid 2012 LZ1 fly-by imaged, June 15

On June 10, 2012, Australian Siding Spring astronomer Rob McNaught and colleagues discovered a bright Near Earth Asteroid (NEA). It got the provisional designation 2012 LZ1 and turned out to be large: it is estimated to be about 500 meter in diameter (UPDATE 22 June 2012: radar observations from Arecibo obtained during the fly-by actually showed it to be twice as large, i.e. 1 km diameter! This suggests a low albedo, which might imply a carbonaceous composition). It made it's closest approach to the earth/moon system around midnight of June 14/15. With a pass distance of 5.3 million km (a multitude of the Earth-Moon distance), this flyby was not particularly close. But because the asteroid is large, it became quite bright, ~ mag. +13.

In the early morning of June 15, some 9 hours after closest approach, I used the "remote" 37-cm F/14 Cassegrain of UoI Rigel observatory at Sonoita, Arizona, USA (MPC 857, the same telescope that I often use to image geostationary satellites)  to image the asteroid (I also obtained some imagery using the larger 61-cm telescope of Sierra Stars Observatory in California).

click image to enlarge

The image above is a stack of 4 CCD images, each of 30 second exposure and spaced 5 minutes in time, obtained with the Rigel telescope. The asteroid can be seen as a set of 4 short trails lining up. It was moving at a rate of about 35"/minute near the Aquila-Capricorn border at that time and was near mag. +13.

Visiting ESTEC for the #AndreTweetUp, an in-flight call with astronaut André Kuipers

On 29 May 2012, some 80 space and twitter enthusiasts gathered at the European Space Agency's (ESA) ESTEC center in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, for a "tweetup" called the #AndreTweetUp. This author was among them.

 AndreTweetUp attendants (photo: ESA)

click image to enlarge

A "tweetup" is a gathering of twitter users. ESA organised the event around a live in-flight call with Dutch astronaut André Kuipers who is onboard the ISS. Eighty followers of the twitter acount of  André Kuipers were invited to attend, after a selection procedure that included the formulation of a question to Kuipers.

Ten of the 80 people present, actually got to ask that question during the live in-flight call . The event  included two lectures, a guided tour through the ESTEC facilities, and ended with the live video in-flight contact.

Dutch astronaut André Kuipers onboard the ISS live from space on the screen, and Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang in front of the screen moderating the live in-flight call (click image to enlarge)

For this author, who was among the lucky 80 to be invited (but alas not among the even more lucky 10 who got to ask their question to Kuipers), this kind of event was new. I jumped the twitter bandwagon late, a few months ago, and untill this #AndreTweetUp occasion, I had never heard of "tweetups".

So I had no idea what to expect. I half expected a hall full of Sheldon Coopers, dressed in Star-Trek costume, mumbling "fascinating!". Or 80 Wolowitzes, trying to hit on the ESA hostesses and talking about the space toilet they designed.

The reality was more benign. Indeed, there were a few people walking around wearing an astronaut's flight jacket covered in space-related patches (mind you: one of those actually was a genuine astronaut: ESA's Christer Fuglesang). And there were a couple of tweeps that seemed to build a life around this kind of events, recognizable by their paraphernalia that included custom t-shirts  and keychains with the words "tweetup" and "space" prominent and a mascotte in the form of a space-suit clad bear called Hughie:

Hughie

But all of these people turned out to be quite nice and normal! The evening before the event, I had a great time as part of an informal evening drink with a few of them (including but not limited to  @travelholic, @4tuneQkie, @DanielScuka and @rtimmermans) in "Einstein" in Leiden:

 Me (right) talking with ESA's Daniel Scuka (@danielscuka, left) about Space and Neandertals with Alex Neumann (@4tuneQkie, seen on back) listening, at the #spaceborrel in Einstein (Leiden) the evening before the tweetup (photo by Eico Neumann/@Travelholic)

You see: this almost looks like normal people! ;-)

Of course, this wouldn't do, so during the tweetup ESA had us all dressed in nerdy t-shirts with the ESA logo and "#AndreTweetUp" on it  ;-)

To bring in the Wolowitz factor, one of the things they let some of us do, was remotely move a robot arm on a future moon-rover located in a lab in Italy. Below is me, giving the command "move arm to left" (no word yet whether they got the rover out of the ditch again).

My Wolowitz moment: remotely moving a robot-arm on an ESA moonrover in a lab in Italy

The program was varied and started with a presentation by ESA's Walker including music videos that amongst others Elton John had made especially for this ISS mission. Walker told that by teaming up with Elton John, the amount of website hits on the ESA mission page increased a factor 2000!

  Tweeps and their laptops (for twittering) in the Erasmus hall

Next we had a very fine video presentation by one of the attendants, Remco Timmermans (@rtimmermans on Twitter), who had travelled to Baikonur to see the launch Soyuz TMA-03M blasting off Kuipers to the ISS.

We were then split-up for a guided tour through the ESTEC facilities, including a peek in the clean-labs (where alas photography was not allowed) and a 3D presentation where we got a virtual tour "trough" the ISS.

And of course, a notable number of the attendants duly tweeted all their experiences as the day progressed (photo shows a few of them listening to an explanation at the Russian Foton capsule, and tweeting about it):

The hall where we tweeps were settled, had enough to see too, as it included amongst others a life-size mockup of the European ISS module Columbus, a genuine Foton capsule and  the genuine Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator (ARD) capsule, the only European capsule having been to space and then re-enter and land safely:

 Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator (ARD). This capsule (it is the original) went to space and came back

Life-size Columbus module mock-up (multiple image stitch)

Russian Foton capsule (original)

Overview of the Erasmus hall, with mock-up Columbus module

Next Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang lectured us on his experiences with travelling to the ISS onboard a Space Shuttle, and introduced the very varied research done onboard the ISS:

ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang, went to space twice

And then it was time for the big moment: the live in-flight video call with Dutch astronaut André Kuipers who is flying onboard the ISS as part of the PromISSe mission. The contact happened at 15:55 UTC (17:55 CEST) while the ISS was over the Galapagos and S-America, by means of a TDRS relay.

Here are some of the lucky 10 that got to ask their question lining up:

Even a "celebrity", soap-actress Babette van Veen (worldfamous in the whole of the Netherlands), got to ask a question (at ~6:15 in the video at the bottom of this post):

Below is a video showing parts of the in-flight call (as the memory card in my camera had filled up, I had no space left to film the complete in-flight call. I thought 8 Gb was enough, but no...).


It was fun and interesting to be present at this happening, and I wish to express a sincere "Thank you!" to the people of ESA and ESTEC for organizing this day!