by Dan Wright
I couldn't locate *anything* in Eileen's scope -- until I aligned the finder. That helped! Then with her permission I used the scope to quick-visit some old favs: Gamma And, Eta Cas, M11, and M13. Later I set up my 10" LX200GPS and centered a lone geosynchronous satellite in view, then quickly switched off tracking motors so the thing would stay in view.
Paul Alsing arrived late at night, happy to be finished with his drive from SoCal. I showed Rashad and Paul my lone geosat, then Paul and I celebrated Paul's arrival by drinking mudslides and slewing my LX200 to all points of the compass. I'll tell ya: Paul A. knows the sky. He directed me to bright eyecandy stuff low in the south that I jolly well should have known, but honestly had never seen. You ought to see the amazing library of books and charts Paul Alsing hauls around inside his van. We were up till 3:30 AM.
Thursday noon Rashad was playing such attractive music. I was drawn to his camp, and sang aloud with him the final verses of Dire Strait's "I Want my MTV". Everybody looked at the sun through his PST. Then Rashad happened to play a song that got stuck in my head for the WHOLE REST OF THE DAMN TRIP ... "Werewolves of London". Ah-ooo! "Werewolves of London". Ah-oooo! Yeah. Ah-ooo! Werewolves of London. Ah-ooo! Yeah. Even when I came back home to the wife and kid I was still singing it.
During CalStar 2004 I cooked and invited people to eat. With Kevin Roberts and Carl Larson acting as "sous chefs", I would scramble some eggs, fry some bacon or sausage, put Capn' Crunch + Raisin Bran + OJ + Milk on the table, then call the whole mess "breakfast". Pretty soon we'd have a table full of guys woofing down food, jostling and jibing, guzzling hot coffee, and telling tales.
Thursday night I rolled up my sleeves and spit on my hands (as Jamie would say), and started learning the help screens in some fancy new satellite-tracking software. Later, with Meade slew-gears grinding coffee in almost the right direction, I caught glimpses of a low- and a medium-altitude satellite before they disappeared. But I needed practice -- they kept drifting out of the eyepiece, while I anxiously pressed this and that laptop key to no effect.
When it was too late to see low satellites, I hunted clusters of geosats, and finally settled upon this pretty group:
| NORAD | Name | Longitude | Latitude |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23192 | DirecTV 2 | 100.7329 E | -0.0056 N |
| 25937 | DirecTV 1-R | 100.8812 E | +0.0032 N |
| 23553 | AMSC 1 | 100.9737 E | -0.1222 N |
| 25954 | GE 4 | 101.0437 E | +0.0074 N |
Notice how close together these birds are. Isn't it cool how their addresses are given as Long/Lat? Geosats are almost never referred to by their RA/Dec. Their topocentric addresses are given as Alt/Az, and their geocentric as Long/Lat. The two DirectTV satellites are understandable. Here's what I discovered about AMSC 1 and GE 4:
| AMSC 1 | Launched April 1995 from Cape Canaveral aboard an Atlas 2A rocket. The 2700 kg satellite supports 2000 radio channels in L- band, and covers all North America plus Hawaii, Puerto Rico, etc. It was the first satellite to use Hughes' springback antennas -- flexible 17-by-22-foot ovals made of graphite. |
|---|---|
| GE 4 | Launched from Kouroun November 1999 aboard an Ariane 44LP rocket. The 3903 kg American satellite provides TV broadcast coverage to cable networks in North and South America. |
I got cold and tired and went to bed about 1:30. The zipper on my sleeping bag was broken and my toes kept poking out the bottom and freezing. Next day friends said, "Silly! Double socks!". Duh.
Friday noon we took a motor tour and visited the Harris Creek parking lot Turley has been talking about for LSA winter observing. It was big, and paved all nice like Coyote, with restrooms nearby, and had superlative views of the lake and surrounding hills.
Friday night I finally got my scope and the new software dialed in tight together, clicking all trustworthy and precise like a freshly-oiled machine.
| INTERCOSMOS25 R/B | ["R/B" means "rocket body"] (NORAD 21820). TSIKLON booster vehicle launched by
the USSR December 1991; payload a satellite to study solar activity. This
rocket body appeared over LSA's southern horizon at 21:44:34. Moderately
bright (estimate mag 5.5) and steady (not flashing). Rose to a max alt of 53
degrees, at which point the software said it was 2849 km above the earth.
Kept it pretty-well centered in the eyepiece as the scope slewed, and actually managed to put some power on it (120 X). It was still just a dot, though. This was my first comprehensive success in identifying and tracking a low- or medium-altitude satellite -- Yup! |
|---|---|
| BSAT-2B | (NORAD 26864) Japanese TV broadcast satellite. Solar panel wing span 16
meters, mass 1300 kg. Originally meant for geostationary position 110 degrees
E longitude over Japan, but failure of Ariane booster July 2001 left satellite
in useless orbit. $60 million total loss. Out of service, tumbling, and
flashing. Appeared on LSA's SW horizon at 22:16:15. Impossible to see until
at least 5 degrees high. Rose to max alt 20 degrees, then was eclipsed by
shadow at 22:29:16 when it was 5034 km above earth's surface.
Observed by Koop, Turley, Cichanski, Larson, Kingsley, Burkart, and others (if I remember right). Flashing about once per second. Taken from the "Fast Flashers" TLE list at http://satobs.org/seesat/Oct-2004/0006.html. Centering a flasher in view and tracking it until LOS (loss of signal) was my goal for this Calstar. That accomplished, everything else was gravy. |
About 1 AM we took a collective break, gathered 'round the table, fixed hot tea, popped Jiffy-Pop on the stove, and turned the conversation to food dishes that stereotypical single, broke, and desperate guys might resort to:
When you've got both Turley and Rashad laughing together at 1 AM about "sink dogs", the joy can be heard all the way down to Harris Creek.
Later that night I found an attractive T-shaped cluster of geosats, only one of which I was able to identify:
| GOES 11 | (NORAD 26352) Geostationary Operational Environment Satellite number 11. The
GOES series
are essentially weather satellites, though they also carry a Space Environment
Monitor (SEM),
including:
GOES 10 and 12 are currently active, while GOES 11 is maintained as a stand-by. See http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/text/goes.databook.html. |
|---|
After Saturn finally rose and everyone had eyeballed it to their satisfaction, many folks shivered off to bed, but I put on a mad bomber's hat, had a shot of hooch, and developed a second wind. On the laptop I had some constellation tours a bloke on the net once wrote using the simple Meade command language, and so because Perseus was favorably placed, I fired up this bloke's tour of Perseus.
But it was the most boring Meade tour ever written -- open cluster after open cluster, all scant and meager -- some having *20 entire stars* to their name, jeeze. This tour bored Turley and Larson right off to their tents.
Then Craig Colvin demonstrated what I'd been missing, not having much aperture with my Meade. Pushed his big dob over to Orion and showed me the horsehead for my first time (with that special filter, you know). Hot damn, not a virgin anymore.
Also showed me the Rosette. Now, I'd pointed a scope at NGC 2237 before, but I'd never really *seen* it. It was great! Bright cluster in the middle with clouds circled all 'round. Reminded me of a stadium -- you know, bright-lit playing field with large oval of seats for the fans.
Next, Craig put lots of power on NGC 2158: that ancient, distant, probably very mighty cluster lurking off the side of M35. It was my finest view ever of that object. My thanks to Craig, and to the other fellow who suggested the object (silly me not to get your name, my friend).
Saturday after breakfast everybody listened to weather predictions, then basically packed up and left -- almost everybody. Some people hung around to enjoy the lingering feeling of vacation and freedom. The afternoon weather was nice, and we held a swap meet of sorts, and took group pictures. Mike Koop felt better and better about canceling the Saturday dinner as clouds gathered in the south.
Near sunset, when it was getting ready to rain, two dudes pulled up in an SUV with what looked like camping and astro gear in the back.
"Is this CalStar?"
You know, there's like 4 of us standing on the edge of an empty field.
"Yup, this is the whole thing".
Young dudes, about 23 or 26, saying they'd read about it from the web page. They'd driven down without checking the weather report. I felt sorry, but what could be done? They drove off, and I hope the experience didn't dampen their lifetime enthusiasm for the hobby.
Some people stayed overnight in cabins, while John R. Pierce and I were the only ones who stayed overnight at the campground.
Having already provided a karmic chicken dinner to me earlier, John R. Pierce and his cute-smart daughter entertained me in their tent trailer, which a person can easily tell is saturated with positive vibes from years of attending Strawberry Music Festivals. Thanks for the cookies, Sarah. Sorry I ran out of beer, John, and thanks for the country music that grows on a person, and the treat at the end too.
Astro equipment and kitchenette and food boxes and coolers were all stacked waterproof inside my Chevy van, and I still had space for a comfy air mattress and sleeping bag and blanket, with my favorite pillow too.
The van stood alone in pitch darkness upon a muddy field under rain with wind roaring through the trees. I felt like a hermit crab with a great shell. I could put this Chevy in Drive and roll the whole show across the face of our plant if I wanted, but I was already in a sacred position, so I konked out warm and cozy to the sound of rain on the roof.
Pictures? I took only a few pictures ... here:
http://www.fototime.com/inv/CFA057A3848DACB
Posted on sf-bay-tac Oct 20, 2004 04:42:48 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.4 Mar 24, 2006 20:41:33 PT
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