First satellite sessions of the new year!

Well, I finally managed to get all my duck (and satellites) in a row for this posting. Managed to get a few sessions (a couple morning sessions, a few evening sessions) on a few clear days at the very beginning of the new year. One of the main reason to go out during that time was the occurrence of the Quadrantid meteor shower which peaked on January 4th. I get to cross off a couple more years with my latest efforts (1968 and 1973) which leaves me with 8, no wait, 9 years (I have to add 2011 to the list now!) that I need to observe to satellite from. Some of those will obviously be more difficult since there are a few years in there that I think I will only be able to observe using either binoculars or a telescope. I guess we'll cross that when we get to it.

Here's the time-line for the evening of:
Date: 02-Jan-2011 Sunday

7:02 PM - Okean 3 - 3.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1991-039-A
This is my third sighting of Okean 3, a Russian earth observation satellite which monitors sea ice conditions in the Arctic.

7:02 PM - Cosmos 405 - 3.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1971-028-A
This is my second sighting of Kosmos 405, a Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite. It was put into orbit using a Vostok-2M rocket.

7:10 PM - FIA Radar 1 - 4.8 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2010-046-A
This is my first sighting of this satellite. This particular satellite is classified by the United States National Reconnaissance Office. The launch designation was L-41 and the satellite designator is USA-215. The satellite itself reportedly the radar component the FIA system (Future Imagery Architecture). It is considered to the be successor to the Lacrosse satellite system. The government makes patches I believe for every space launch. HERE is the patch for L-41. However, it seems that the FIA program is in a bit of trouble. Remember that satellite we shot down a few years back, supposedly this was also part of the FIA system. There are also various other setback, cost overruns, etc that have plagued the FIA system. Anyhoo, the FIA Radar satellite was launched into LEO (low-earth orbit) using an Atlas V 501 rocket.

7:13 PM - Cosmos 676 Rocket - 3.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1974-071-B
This is my first sighting of this Kosmos-3M rocket body which launched the Russian Strela-2M communications satellite Kosmos 676.

7:15 PM - COSMO-SKYMED 1 - 3.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2007-023-A
This is my ninth observation of the Italian earth observation satellite, COSMO-Skymed 1.

7:18 PM - Resurs 1-4 Rocket - 1.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-043-G
This is my 24th sighting of this Zenit-2 Rocket aka "ye olde bright and faithful".

7:23 PM - IRAS - 5.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1983-004-A
This is my 3rd sighting IRAS (Infrared Astronomical Satellite)

7:32 PM - Quadrantid meteor - -1.0 Magnitude
This was a bright orange shooting star that headed into the east.

7:38 PM - Cosmos 400 Rocket - 6.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1971-020-B
This is my first sighting of this Kosmos-3M rocket body which put Kosmos 400 into orbit. The significance of Kosmos 400 is that it was used by the Russians as a target (model name: DS-P1-M) to test anti-satellite missiles. Kosmos 400 was launched into orbit on March 18 1971. On April 4 1971, the Russians launched Kosmos 404 which intercepted and destroyed Kosmos 400. Debris from this intercept is still orbiting around the earth. HERE is a picture of what Kosmos 400 looked like.

7:44 PM - OAO 2 Rocket - 4.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1968-110-B
This is my first sighting of this Atlas-SLV3C Centaur-D rocket which put a Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO) satellite into orbit. The Atlas SLV-3 was derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile, the first ICBM capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to ANYWHERE on earth. The Atlas SLV-3 was not very successful. Out of 5 launches, only 3 succeeded. But this rocket succeeded. The satellite that was put into orbit was OAO-2 aka Stargazer. There were four space observatories launched into orbit between 1966 and 1972. These observatories provided the first high-quality ultraviolet observations of many objects. Two of the four observatories failed. OAO-2 was NOT one of them. Carrying 11 ultraviolet telescopes, it performed observations until 1973 including discovering that comets are surrounded by giant halos of hydrogen.

7:49 PM - Cosmos 1674 - 4.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1985-069-A
This is my second sighting of Kosmos 1674, a Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite.

7:51 PM - Quadrantid meteor - -1.0 Magnitude
This was a bright white shooting star that headed to the NW.

7:53 PM - Aureole 2 Rocket - 3.8 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1973-107-B
This is my first sighting of this Kosmos-3M rocket which was used to launched the Russian Aureole 2 satellite. Aureole 2 was designed to study the magnetosphere and the nature of polar aurora.


Here's the time-line for:
Date: 03-Jan-2011 Monday

6:21 AM - Yaogan 1 - 2.8 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2006-015-A
This is my second sighting of Yaogan 1, the Chinese remote sensing satellite.

6:28 AM - Ciel 2 Tank - 2.8 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2008-063-B
This is my first sighting of this Briz-M tank. It was part of the Proton-M launch of the Ciel-2 satellite, a Canadian commercial communications satellite. Here's more on the Ciel-2 satellite.

8:28 PM - Quadrantid meteor - 1.0 Magnitude
This shooting star was heading W to N (possibly not a quadrantid due to its direction)


Here's the time-line for:
Date: 04-Jan-2011 Tuesday

6:22 AM - Quadrantid meteor - 1.0 Magnitude
This shooting star was heading downward in the N

6:23 AM - Meteor 1-11 - 4.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1972-022-A
This is my first observation of Meteor 1-11, a Russian meteorological satellite. This satellite was one of many (30 plus) Meteor 1 type satellites. It was the first of 3 to be launched in 1972.

7:03 PM - COSMO-SkyMed 2 - 3.6 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2007-059-A
This is my sixth sighting of COSMO-Skymed 2, an Italian earth observation satellite.

7:12 PM - Aureole 2 Rocket - 3.8 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1973-107-B
This is my second sighting of this Kosmos-3M rocket which was used to launched the Russian Aureole 2 satellite.

7:33 PM - Cosmos 2369 rocket - 2.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2000-006-B
This is my first sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket which was used to launch the Kosmos 2369 satellite. NASA believes this satellite is for Russian communications, however most websites believe this to be a Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite.



I managed to pick off 1968 and 1973 in this series of sessions. I still need to see satellites from the following years: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1973, and 1979 ... oops and 2011 :-).