Subject: Re: Uncatalogued geosynchronous satellites tracked
From: thomsona@netcom.com (Allen Thomson)
Date: 1996/02/10
Message-Id: <thomsonaDMKBtn.60s@netcom.com>
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy,sci.astro.amateur
In article <thomsonaDMGGG0.Dy2@netcom.com> thomsona@netcom.com (Allen Thomson) writes:
>In article <4fb4dn$1ea@news.ox.ac.uk> thomas.womack@merton.oxford.ac.uk(Thomas Womack) writes:
[snip]
>>Any chance of details such as the telescopes used? Is he using
>>binoculars or a university 36" sky-survey telescope?
>>
>
> I'll ask.
Rainer Kracht has kindly answered my query about
his observations of geosynchronous satellites and has granted permission to
repost here. (Seesat-l is an amateur satellite observers' mailing list.)
The text of his reply follows.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have written a short message to seesat-l about the detection of
the two geosats. My messages to seesat-l are accessible to everyone
who has access to the www, so it's ok if you post them on
sci.space.policy and sci.space.amateur.
Observations of GEO347 show an orbit of about 29700 km x 41900 km x 8.3 deg.
Chalet-1 (1978-058A) had 29929 x 42039 x 12
Vortex-1 (1979-086A) had 30443 x 41497 x 7.5.
(Source: United Nations Registry of Space Objects, RAE-Tables,
Spaceflight, Vol. 37, p.383, Nov 1995)
Text of first message to seesat-l follows.
Rainer
Nachricht von : R.KRACHT@ABBS.heide.de (Rainer Kracht)
Betrifft : Observations of geosync satellites
Kopienempfaenger : seesat-l@iris01.plasma.mpe-garching.mpg.de
Erstellungsdatum : 01.05.1995 16:43:19 S+0
Observations of geosync satellites
I started to observe geosats on March 1 this year, when the declination
of the sun was nearly the same as that of the geostationary satellites
as seen from my site (+9.6626 east long./+53.7695 north lat./9m). I use a
Dynamax 8" SCT (200 mm), my observation sky is moderately bright with
naked eye stars to mag 4.5 (only occasionally mag 5.5).
On March 25 I found the flashing DFH-3 (94-80A, 23415). Two days later I
observed it again near alpha Hya. Clouds terminated the observations of
DFH-3, but about one hour later the sky was clear again and I returned to
the vicinity of alpha Hya. There I found an unknown geosat (of mag 10.5),
which showed a slow drift to the southeast. The next days I found it again
and could derive an orbit.
When I followed the unknown object on April 24, a very slowly moving
satellite crossed the path of the unknown. Closest approach (about
10 arcseconds) was at 21:43:16.72 UTC. I decided to follow the new object,
which was about mag 10.0. It turned out to be another unknown geosat with
an even greater inclination and eccentricity.
The groundtrack of the first object was centered at 331.6 to 331.2 deg
east longitude in April, so I called it GEO331. The second object is
stationed over approx. 347.1 deg east longitude (GEO347). Elsets for
both objects:
GEO331
1 99331U 95117.00000000 -.00000110 00000-0 00000+0 0 03
2 99331 1.3344 337.2278 0130971 183.4799 25.0139 1.00262571 00
GEO347
1 99347U 95117.00000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 07
2 99347 8.4229 332.5570 1445014 255.0748 333.7497 1.00269578 08
Rainer Kracht
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