9 more on 11-12

Got to go out for another hour this evening. At first, I could have sworn that I just had the wrong sheet. I was seeing absolutely nothing on my list and seeing all kinds of vbright stuff that WASN'T on my list. When there was a break, I went back inside to look at the sites, just to make sure that maybe I hadn't used the site with the wrong location or maybe the wrong month... but nope, my list jived with what was on the website. So I went back out and then started seeing the crap I thought I should have been seeing. Weird. There were two really bright objects chasing each other at 6:58pm, but neither site had anything remotely close to the altitude or time. It was weird. Maybe it was something that launched in the past couple of days the sites aren't tracking yet. It's possible. Who knows. I also got to see my 250th object this evening. Read on to see what it was.

Here's the time-line for evening of:
Date: 12-Nov-2010 Friday

6:52 PM - SkyMed 3 - 4.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2008-054-A
This is my third sighting of COSMO-SkyMed 3, an Italian earth observation satellite.

6:56:00 PM - ??? - 2.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: none
6:56:20 PM - ??? - 2.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: none
These two objects with the same magnitude (I estimate at a magnitude of 2) were basically following the same path as SkyMed 3, about 20 seconds apart, but neither site I look at had anything close timewise for these. I'm stumped. The only thing I can think of is that they were recently launched and the sites aren't tracking them yet.

Updated May 6th 2011
6:56:00 PM - Picard r DbE - 2.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2010-028-E

This is my first sighting of this Dnepr-1 rocket (which itself is a converted ICBM). This rocket was used to launch the French PICARD satellite. According to Wikipedia, Picard was "dedicated to the simultaneous measurement of the absolute total and spectral solar irradiance, the diameter and solar shape, and to the Sun's interior probing by the helioseismology method." If you know what that means, let me know. :-) Three other satellites were deployed as well. PRISMA, a pair of Swedish satellite, is designed to fly in formation and do all kinds of other things (read Gunter's page for details). The two satellites had the cute names of Mango and Tango. BPA 1 was a Ukraine payload of aviation experiments which was mounted to the Dnepr-1's third stage.

6:56:20 PM - SMOS - 2.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2009-059-A

This is my first sighting of the European SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) satellite. It does what it sounds like it does, as well as help with weather predictions as well as track snow and ice accumulations. It was launched into orbit using a Russian Rokot-KM rocket in 2009.


7:01 PM - Terra SAR X Db - 6.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2007-026-C
This is my first observation of this object, which is some debris from the launch of TerraSAR-X, a German earth observation satellite. It's not the rocket (that would be 2007-026-B) so I'm guessing that this would possibly be the protective cover for the satellite that is ejected when the satellite is put into orbit.

7:20 PM - Gravity ProbeB - 3.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2004-014-A
This is my second sighting of the Gravity Probe B.

7:22 PM - Geosat - 3.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1985-021-A
This is my first sighting of Geosat (short for GEOdetic SATellite), a US Navy earth observation satellite which was launched in 1985. The satellite carried a radar altimeter capable of measuring the distance from the satellite to sea surface with a relative precision of about 5 cm (!!!). There's other good information on this sat on the wiki page.

7:25 PM - Helios 1B - 2.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1999-064-A
Hello, frenchies! Look at me! This is my eighth sighting of this French photo-recon satellite.

7:28 PM - ??? - 4.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: none
This was an orange shooting start coming out of the E heading west at about 45 degrees in the sky. Possibly a Leonid meteor.

7:57 PM - Resurs 1-4 Rocket - 2.7 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-043-G
NUMBER 250!!!! That's right, the ol faithful got to be number 250. I was hoping it would be! This my eighteen sighting of this object. One of these evenings, I'm going to have to attempt to see this twice in one night. There have been many nights were it could have been possible but usually I miss the early pass. D'oh!

Sorry for not going into detail on these... but the wife is hungry for some popcorn and I'm the f'ing popcorn master!

11 on 11-11

Got to go out for an hour this evening. Armed with a list, I actually ended up with a perfect score which might be a first for me. By 'perfect score' I mean that see everything that is on my list from the time I go outside til the time I come in. I actually did better since I actually saw a few more including the ones on my list.

Here's the time-line for evening of:
Date: 11-Nov-2010 Thursday

6:42 PM - Resurs 1-4 Rocket - 2.8 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-043-G
Oh yeah! Ol Faithful! Sighting #17.

6:52 PM - SkyMed 2 - 3.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2007-059-A
This is my third sighting of COSMO-SkyMed 2, the Italian earth observation satellite. A quick note, the final COSMO-SkyMed satellite, SkyMed 4, was launched on Nov 6th 2010. I'm hoping to grab a glimpse of this satellite (and its Delta 2 rocket) sometime this weekend.

6:56 PM - Gravity ProbeB - 3.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2004-014-A
This is my first sighting of the Gravity Probe B. The goal of this satellite is to measure spacetime curvature near the earth. and thereby the stress-energy tensor (which is related to the distribution and the motion of matter in space) in and near Earth. This will provide a test of general relativity, gravitomagnetism and related models. Yeah, it all sounds like Star Trek to me. The wiki page goes into great detail and is pretty interesting to read.

6:58 PM - ??? - -1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: none
This was a giant blue fireball that had a tail about 10 degrees long. It was heading NW to NE. It lasted a long time (about 2 to 3 seconds) compared to most shooting stars I see. Since it was in the north around the Big Dipper, this possibly was from the upcoming Leonids which center around the constellation Leo. Check out this picture, which is approximately the type of fireball I saw.

6:59 PM - Shijian6-3 LMr - 3.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2008-053-C
This is my third sighting of this Long March 4B rocket body used to launch Shijian 6E and 6F.

7:02 PM - Cosmos 1844 Rocket - 3.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1987-041-B
This is my first sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket body which was used to launch Kosmos 1844, a Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite.

7:03 PM - Helios 1B - 2.8 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1999-064-A
This is my seventh sighting of Helios 1B, the French photo-recon satellite.

7:12 PM - ??? - 3.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: none
This object was a very brief, orange shooting star that was heading into the SE.

7:17 PM - Iridium 4 Dl Rocket - 3.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1997-020-F
This is my second sighting of this Delta II rocket used to launch Iridium 4.

7:37 PM - ISS - -0.5 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-067-A
This is my eighth sighting of the International Space Station.

7:40 PM - SkyMed 1 - 4.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: - 2007-023-A
I'm taking a guess on this one. I could very well have been seeing crap for this one. Usually the site I do my research on will have SOMETHING that is nearby about the time I see something. But this one, is a bit of a stretch. It's possible that this was actually an airplane and since I was looking for the ISS in a few minutes, I may not have looked at it long enough.

A week and a half of sessions

This is gonna be a long post containing 43 observations (including observation #200). Sorry. I just haven't had time to get them in as I felt that REAL news like Halloween n Record Shows were more important. I'll try to only really go into detail for objects that I've not seen before. Once can only hear about Helios 1 or Resurs 1-4 so many times.

This post covers Oct 31 morning (technically a repeat) through Nov 10th (this evening). I had a killer session on Nov 1st with 18 objects. For this evening (Nov 10th), I told myself I was only gonna go out for an old rocket booster from 1974 but then I suckered myself to go outside to catch the ISS, Resurs 1-4 and a 1971 ASTEX satellite. Of the 7 I planned, I only missed one. Not bad.

Now... let the games begin!!!

Here's the time-line for the morning and evening of:
Date: 31-Oct-2010 Sunday

7:17 AM - Cosmos 2237 Rocket - 2.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1993-016-B
This object is a Zenit-2 rocket body which was used to launch the Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite, Kosmos 2237. This is my third sighting for this one.

7:23 PM - Shijian6-3 LMr - 3.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2008-053-C
This is my second sighting of this Long March 4B rocket body used to launch Shi Jian 6E and 6F satellites.

7:31 PM - Cosmos 1400 Rocket - 3.5 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1982-079-B
This is my first sighting of this Vostok-2M. This rocket was used to launch Kosmos 1400, a Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite, in the year 1982.

7:33 PM - Shijian 7 LM Rocket - 3.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2005-024-B
This is my third sighting of this Chinese Long March 2D rocket used to launch the Shijian 7 experimental satellite

7:37 PM - Meteor 1-20 Rocket - 5.7 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1974-099-B
This is my first sighting of this Vostok-2M which was used by the Russians to put up the twentieth Meteor 1 meteorological satellite in 1974.

7:45 PM - Cosmos 1408 - 2.6 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1982-092-A
This is my second sighting of Kosmos 1408, a Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite.

---

Here's the time-line for evening of:
Date: 1-Nov-2010 Monday

7:13 PM - AMC 9 BrzTank - 4.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2003-024-B
This is my first sighting of this Briz-M upper stage from a Proton-M rocket. It was used to launch AMC 9, a geostationary communications satellite that provides direct-to-home digital TV to the United States and Canada.

7:25 PM - ISS - -1.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-067-A
This is my fifth sighting of the International Space Station.

7:28 PM - Cosmos 44 Rocket - 3.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1964-053-B
This is my first sighting of this Vostok-2M which was used by the Russians in 1964 to put up Kosmos 44, an experimental meteorological satellite. If you remember, Kosmos 44 was one of the really old objects I was trying to see... and I was successful on Oct 7th 2010.

7:33 PM - Cosmos 1400 Rocket - 3.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1982-079-B
This is my second sighting (and second night in a row) of this Vostok-2M rocket.

7:34 PM - Helios 1B - 3.7 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1999-064-A
This is my fifth sighting of Helios 1B, a French photo-recon satellite.

7:36 PM - Meteor 2-21 Rocket - 5.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1993-055-C
This is my first sighting of this Tsyklon-3 rocket which was used by the Russians to deploy the 21st (and last) Meteor 2 meteorological satellite. I guess Meteor 2-21 was a bit distinctive due to its unique retroreflector array. Read up at the link. It's a bit too complex to try to explain here. :)

7:45 PM - NOAA 1 Rocket - 5.5 Magnitude (NUMBER 200!!!)
Int'l Designator: 1970-106-B
THIS IS MY 200th SIGHTING! It is fitting that this object would be both an older object (from 1970) and also be the first time seeing it. This object is a Delta N6 rocket body. Here is another pic of the Delta N6. This rocket was used to launch two satellite. The first NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) satellite (also known as ITOS A) was used to provide infrared and visual observations of earth cloud cover for use in weather forecasting. The second was CEP 1 (CEPE) which was an experiment piggybacked onto the second stage of the Delta N6 and stupid electron density, temperature and ion current. The Delta N6 was used only 3 times, and all three times it was used for ITOS satellites.

7:38 PM - Cosmos 1408 - 2.6 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1982-092-A
This is my third sighting of Kosmos 1408, a Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite.

7:50 PM - Lacrosse 5 - 1.8 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2005-016-A
This is my sixth sighting of the NRO U.S. recon satellite, Lacrosse 5.

7:57 PM - Cosmos 2263 Rocket - 2.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1993-059-B
This is my first sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket body. It was used to launch Kosmos 2263, a Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite.

7:58 PM - Cosmos 1867 - 3.7 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1987-060-A
This is my first sighting of Kosmos 1867. This satellite was a RORSAT (Radar Ocean Reconnaissance SATellite) which was used to search the oceans for naval and merchant ships. It is powered by a TOPAZ 1 nuclear reactor. It also contained a Hall effect (ion) thruster.

8:01 PM - Cryosat 2 Rocket - 5.6 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2010-013-B
This is my first sighting for this Russian Dnepr-1 rocket. The Dnepr-1 is a converted Russian ICBM. This rocket was used to put the second CryoSat satellite into orbit. The CryoSat satellites use radar to determine the thickness of the polar ice sheets. The launch of the first CryoSat satellite failed use to a programmatic error in the launch vehicle (which was a Rokot, another re-purposed ICBM, not a dnept-1).

8:04 PM - Skymed 2 - 3.6 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2007-059-A
This is my second sighting of the COSMO-SkyMed 2 Italian earth observation satellite.

8:04 PM - IRAS Rocket - 4.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1983-004-B
This is my second sighting of this Delta 3910 rocket that was used to put the IRAS telescope into orbit.

8:06 PM - Cosmos 1315 Rocket - 3.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1981-103-B
This is my second sighting of this Vostok-2M rocket body which was used to launch Kosmos 1315, a Russian ELINT Tselina-D satellite.

8:21 PM - Tansuo 1 LM2r - 2.8 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2004-012-C
This is my ninth sighting of this Long March 2C rocket body. It was used to launch the Tansuo 1 satellite which was capable stereo imaging.

8:25 PM - Resurs 1-4 Rocket - 2.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-043-G
This is my 14th sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket body.

8:25 PM - Meteor 3-6 - 5.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1994-003-A
This is my first sighting of Meteor 3-6, a Russian meteorological satellite.

---

Here's the time-line for morning of:
Date: 3-Nov-2010 Wednesday

7:01 AM - Cosmos 2026 Rocket - 4.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1989-042-B
This is my first sighting of this Kosmos-3M rocket which was used to launch the Russian Kosmos 2026 which, amazingly enough _not_ an ELINT satellite. Kosmos 2026 was a Parus satellite, which are used for communications and navigation. There have been 99 Parus satellites launched since Kosmos 700 in 1974 (which is still in orbit, btw).

7:04 AM - shooting star - 5.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: nope
I believe this to be just one of those random shooting stars, not affiliated with any specific meteor shower. Or it could just be some space junk burning up in the atmosphere.

---

Here's the time-line for morning of:
Date: 7-Nov-2010 Sunday
6:21 AM - Cosmos 2406 Rocket - 3.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2004-021-B
This is my first sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket body which was used to launch Kosmos 2406, a Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite.

---

Here's the time-line for evening of:
Date: 8-Nov-2010 Monday
I remember this evening. In my haste, I mistaken wrote down a bunch of satellites... unfortunately my military time brain was off and I picked up 18:00hr (6PM) satellites when I should have been picking up 19:00 (7PM) satellites. In a 1/2 hour I managed to see one satellite by chance.

7:33 PM - Helios 1B - 3.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1999-064-A
This is my sixth sighting of Helios 1B, a French photo-recon satellite.

---

Here's the time-line for evening of:
Date: 9-Nov-2010 Tuesday

6:02 PM - Envisat Ari5 Rocket - 2.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2002-009-B
This is my first sighting of this Ariane 5 rocket body. This rocket was used to launch Envisat (Environmental Satellite) which is a European Space Agency (ESA) earth observation satellite. It is also the largest earth observation satellite ever put into orbit. It's got cool stuff on it. However, we should be focusing on the Ariane 5 rocket which is used to put objects into GTO (geostationary transfer orbit) or LEO (low earth orbit). It consists of a main motor which used liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen and two solid rocket boosters.

6:44 PM - Cosmos 1606 - 2.7 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1984-111-A
This is my first sighting of Kosmos 1606, a Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite.

6:46 PM - ISS - -1.6 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-067-A
This is my sixth sighting of the International Space Station.

6:55 PM - Cosmos 2278 Rocket - 2.7 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1994-023-B
This is my first sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket body which launched Kosmos 2278, a Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite.

6:58 PM - Iridium 4 Dl Rocket - 3.5 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1997-020-F
This is my first sighting of this Delta 7920-10C rocket body. It was used to put the Iridium 4 satellite into orbit. The Delta 7920-10C is in the Delta II rocket family. The numbering system is explained on the wiki page.

7:00 PM - Cosmos 2082 Rocket - 2.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1990-046-B
This is my first sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket body which was used to launch Kosmos 2082, a Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite.

7:04 PM - Skymed 1 - 2.6 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2007-023-A
This is my fifth sighting of COSMO-Skymed 1, an Italian earth observation satellite.

7:21 AM - shooting star - 4.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: nope
Just a shooting star or piece of space junk burning up.

7:30 PM - Resurs 1-4 Rocket - 1.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-043-G
This is my 15th sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket body. Ol' faithful!

---

Here's the time-line for evening of:
Date: 10-Nov-2010 Wednesday

6:23 PM - Cosmos 660 Rocket - 1.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1974-044-B
This was the only object I was planning on seeing on November 10th, however I ended up running downstairs and writing a few more down. This is my first time seeing this Kosmos-3M rocket body which, in 1974, launched the first Russian Taifun-1/Vektor satellite which was a radar calibration target.

6:46 PM - Cosmos 2082 Rocket - 2.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1990-046-B
This is my second sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket body which put Kosmos 2082, a Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite into orbit.

6:55 PM - Inmarsat4-F3Tk - 3.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2008-039-B
This is my first sighting of this Briz-M tank. This particular second stage launched the Inmarsat-4 F3 satellite, owned by British telecom company Inmarsat, which is used in broadband communications.

6:57 PM - ASTEX - 3.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1971-089-A
This is my first sighting of the ASTEX (Advanced Space Technology Experiment) satellite which was designed to test advanced development payloads. Read more at the link for lots of stuff that I couldn't quite grasp since I'm getting tired. I can tell you that it was launched in 1971 but ended up killing itself when it failed to heed a 'stop transmission' command and the darn thing ended up transmitting itself to death.

7:06 PM - Resurs 1-4 Rocket - 2.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-043-G
This is my 16th sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket body.

7:11 PM - ISS - -1.5 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-067-A
This is my 7th sighting of the International Space Station.

A weeks worth of updates and satellites

Here's a weeks worth of what's been going on... Enjoy!
This is a big post so just skip to the sections you care about.

=-=-=-=-=

I wrote the last update Halloween morning. The grandparent's came up to help take the kids out for trick-or-treat. I passed out candy. While I love seeing my kids all dressed up, I'm too much of a control freak to actual go out with them (actually, that's a crock cause when lil N was two, I was the one who went out with her and it was fun. Anyhoo... I set up my station in the driveway to pass out candy. Everyone else went out. Lil N was a cat, lil A was a dog. M said that after about 5 houses, lil N proclaimed 'I'm done.' And M said 'oh, heck no. I didn't bring the grandparents up here for 5 houses'. Also after about 5 houses lil A started getting restless. However, M being the quick thinking mom that she is, simply gave him a sucker and he was pleased as punch the rest of the evening. Also, at some point between houses, lil N out of nowhere exclaimed "I LOVE HALLOWEEN!". M said it was too cute.

I on the other hand was getting bombarded. Last year we had about 150 kids, I believe. I surveyed the candy and determined, yeah, we had plenty. 6pm rolled around and within the first 15 minutes, I had already given out treats to 50 kids. The first BIG bag of candy was gone. It was a 100 pc bag, but I was giving out two since they were kinda small. I was starting to regret it already. I pretty much got hammered for the first hour and 15 minutes. All told, I had about 250 to 270 kids. Egads! I think much of that was due to Halloween actually being on a weekend, even more so a Sunday. Not many parents were having to scramble home from work n whatnot. Everyone had all day to think about it , prepare for it, etc. My Dad sat outside with me for a while. Since we were looking east, I was able to point out some satellites him. I had my clipboard with me since the ISS was heading overhead at 7pm (I missed it cause I was too busy handing out candy), so I got to write them down.

=-=-=-=-=

I finally got the car back on Tuesday evening. They fixed everything for a little under $2000. The price was lower than I had anticipated, so that was something to be somewhat happy about. I think they even fit the headlight that was out for 'free'. I also got a oil change out of it, but I don't really think they had much choice on that one. Anyways, it seems fine. Only occasionally is there smoke coming off the engine which is prolly it just burning off whatever fluids they got on it while handling the engine parts. Hopefully it doesn't burst into flames.

=-=-=-=-=

Saturday rolled around and it was record show time again. I headed up to the record show around 11am. I browsed and browsed and browsed. I kept looking for Ian but never saw him, I figured he was just blending in. Around 12:15pm there was a tap on my shoulder. It was Ian. He misread the email and thought I was picking him up (since I had done that once before) so he had just gotten there. Since we were suppose to meet Todd for lunch at 12:30pm, I rang him up. Unfortunately his dog was sick so he wasn't going to be able to make it (Get well soon, Sammy!) So I kept perusing. Ian much have worked at breakneck speed and I must have been crawling since I was actively looking through various $1,$2 record bins. After about an hour Ian said he was done and I hadn't even gotten to the last row. I was already out about $20 so I figured it was okay to call it a day. After the record show, we headed over to the Mafia King Gyro Shoppe (that's not it's real name) and shot the crap for a couple of hours. I had a reasonable lunch (just a #1 for $5.99) unlike last time when my bill came out to $16.

Here's a quick list of what I picked up:
LP - 1974 - Emerson Lake and Palmer - "Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends - Ladies and Gentle Men" = Yes, that is the entire title of the album. It's even on the spine that way. This is a three album with a nearly useless gatefold. And it was $2. W00t!

LP - 1972 - Foghat - "Foghat" = I believe this is Foghat's debut album. It contains 'I Just Want To Make Love To You'. Ithas a totally lo-fi 2 color cover with brown ink.

LP - 1973 - Buddy Rich - "The Monster" = A two LP classic from the man on the drums himself. This should be a sweet listen.

LP - ??? - Mercury Records presents Zig-Zag Festival. I don't know what the hell this 2 LP collection is. At first, I actually thought it was a recording for some 1970s festival, however I'm not so sure now. I honestly think it is just a Mercury Records sampler trying to cash in on the Woodstock craze. Here's a pic of the record.

LP - 1984 - "Electric Dreams" Original Soundtrack = This is the soundtrack for a movie about a guy and his computer. I love this movie. They've never put it out on DVD. Even the VHS copies are hard to find. Anyhoo, finding this was truly a 'no way!' moment. It's in pristine condition with the shinkwrap still on it.

CD - 1995 - fourplay - "Elixer" = This is a group that does smooth jazz. I got their debut album as a promo when I was working at the video store. Good stuff.

CD - 1985 - Leonard Berstein conducts "West Side Story" = This is a 2 CD album. It was a dollar. I love "West Side Story" so I couldn't pass this up. I believe I have the DVD which shows the making of this album.

CD - 1984 - Queensryche - "The Warning" = At some point I had this CD, however it has gone missing. I suspect grabby little fingers from moving it on me. Anyways, this was my most expensive item at $4.

and now, the pièce de résistance,

CD - 2009 - Eddie Money's "Two Tickets To Paradise - The Musical" = That's right. Eddie Money made a musical about his life. He's even on the darn thing. It must be the world's shortest musical with only 7 songs on this CD (including one listed as "Intro"). I literally laughed out loud when I saw this one. Even more amusing is that the only Eddie Money song I recognize on this thing is "Two Tickets To Paradise".

=-=-=-=-=

I'll list my satellite sessions later.

Happy Halloween! (and a sat)

Just wanted to tell everyone Happy Halloween!

I went out very briefly this morning and got to spot one satellite. The deck was really cold and all I had on my feet were some really thin ankle socks. Brrrrrrr.

Here's the time-line of the morning of:
Date: 31-Oct-2010 Sunday

7:17am - Cosmos 2237 Rocket - 2.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1993-016-B
This object is a Zenit-2 rocket body which was used to launch the Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite, Kosmos 2237. This is my third sighting for this one.

Notes: As of today, I've seen 36 different Cosmos satellites (or their rocket boosters). I've seen of those, I've seen five complete pairs (meaning that I've seen both the satellite and the rocket booster though not necessarily in the same session) Kosmos 1315, Kosmos 1455, Kosmos 1626, Kosmos 1833, Kosmos 2428. To date I have seen 188 objects (including meteors / shooting stars) over 25 sessions (if they were on the same date (ie a morning and an evening), then I count that as one session.

Cars, pumpkins, TV shows and satellites

Stupid car. If you recall, last year about this time (well, more like November, but whatever)... the Low Coolant light started turning on. Eventually, while driving into work on a 17 degree day, the light came on.. and never went off... and the car overheated. Turns out the transmission fluid lines run through the radiator and they were leaking into the coolant. Trans fluid does NOT act like coolant. It also trashes the radiator. $2500 and a new radiator later, the car was fixed. Or so I thought. About a week ago, the damn light came on. And I knew right away that it wasn't just going to fix itself. So I took it in. And of course, I now owe another hunk of change to the service department to the tune of about $2000 to get the header gaskets replaced (a known issue in these stupid Pontiacs from the early 2000s) plus the coolant detector was faulty AND, to top it all off, I clipped a crub at about 45 MPH on the way home from a late night at work. I can tell you that doing this will 1) put a nice gash in your tire and 2) will snap part the sway bar. Oh well, that's how it goes when you own a car with 98,000 miles on it. Overall, it's in good shape. Minimal rusting, no real transmission issues to speak of, the inside doesn't smell like wet dog. So, if I can get this baby to run another year or two without any more major repairs, then I think I'll be okay with how well the car has done.

We did get to carve pumpkins this year (last year we never got around to it :( ). We tried out using a couple sets of 'pumkin carving tools' that we got on clearance two years ago. Lil N got to draw on one. M tried her hand at doing those intricate designs to put Swiper (from Dora the Explorer) on one of them. She did pretty good but she said it stressed her out too much. I did my usual, normal thing. We got seeds from two pumpkins and I got to toast some pumpkin seeds. This year was French Fry seasoning (always a winner) and also tried Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle which is strong but after about the first pinch or two of seeds is pretty hot n tasty. While the seeds were roasting, I ran outside a couple of times to catch a few satellites.

I'm starting to fall behind on my blogging of spotting satellites. I go out and check out the stars when the wife is getting lil N is getting ready for bed and then come in when the wife has returned. Instead of heading downstairs to blog about my sights, I tend to just sit down and watch the boob-tube with the wife.

We finished up 'The Big Bang Theory' Season 3 (thanks Marysville library) and Season 4 / The final season of 'thirtysomething'. BBT is just funny as all get out. The finale for thritysomething sucked, but that wasn't their fault. They didn't know they weren't going to get picked back up for a fifth season, so they never wrote a proper 'see y'all later' episode.

Up next on the list is finishing off the fifth season of The Brady Bunch (this one was put on hiatus about 4 years ago... ha!) and the sixth and final season of Dawson's Creek (again.. put on hiatus about 4 years ago... ha!). Wa're thinking about starting Alias when those are all said and done. I'm sure my wife would like to watch Angel again, though my interest with vampire stuff stopped when Buffy graduated high school.

And, without further ado.. the past two satellite spotting sessions: 3 on 10/27 and 9 on 10/29.

Here's the time-line of the evening of:
Date: 27-Oct-2010 Wednesday

8:22pm - ISS - -2.8 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-067-A
Third sighting of the ISS. Quick note, the ISS started with the the Russian Zarya and was launched into space in 1998 using a Russian Proton rocket. Zarya (or Functional Cargo Block (FCB)) provided electrical power, storage, propulsion, and guidance to the ISS during the initial stage of assembly.

8:32pm - NOSS 3-3 Rocket - 3.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2005-004-B
Second sighting for this one. This object is an Atlas 3B rocket body which was used to launch the Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) 3-3 satellites.

8:56pm - Lacrosse 5 - 2.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2005-016-A
This is my fifth sighting of the National Reconnaissance Office's SAR imaging satellite Lacrosse 5. No 'disappearing trick' this evening.


Here's the time-line of the evening of:
Date: 29-Oct-2010 Friday

7:30pm - GOCE - 3.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2009-013-A
This is my first sighting of the European Space Agency's GOCE satellite. GOCE stands for Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer. This satellite studies the densities of the Earth's crust and oceans. This satellite is pretty cool in it's body design and use of a ion propulsion engine to keep it in orbital trajectory.

7:40pm - ISS - -2.7 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-067-A
My fourth sighting of the ISS.

7:44pm - Zi Yuan-2B - 3.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2002-049-A
This is my third sighting of the Chinese JB-3 'possibly a recon' satellite. Here is what NASA has to say about it.

7:58pm - Resurs 1-4 Rocket - 2.5 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-043-G
I had a bit of a dry spell in spotting this one. This is sighting number 13.

7:58pm - COSMO SkyMed 1 - 2.5 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2007-023-A
This is my fourth sighting of the Italian recon satellite, COSMO-SkyMed 1.

8:00pm - Cosmos 1408 - 2.6 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1982-092-A
This object is a Russian Tselina-D recon satellite named Kosmos 1408. This is my first sighting for this satellite. It was launched using a Tsyklon-3 rocket in 1982.

8:00pm - Cosmos 1315 Rocket - 3.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1981-103-B
First sighting! This object is the Vostok-2M rocket which launched Cosmos 1315, a Russian ELINT Tselina-D satellite. I spotted Cosmos 1315 itself on Oct 22 2010.

8:04pm - Helios 1B - 2.8 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1999-064-A
This object is the French photo reconnaissance satellite, Helios 1B. It's brothers Helios 2A and 2B are similar French photo recon satellites with a ground resolution of 30cm(!!!). This is my 4th sighting of Helios 1B.

8:11pm - Tansuo 1 LM2r - 3.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2004-012-C
This is my eighth sighting of this Long March 2C rocket body. This rocket was used to launch the Tansuo 1 satellite which was capable of taking stereo imaging.

Too nice to even have a chance... well, except for 3

It was just too darn nice a night for me to even have a chance to go sky-watching for long. They neighbors two houses down were outside. Not sure what they were doing. They were quiet so that part was nice. Their outside lights being on sucked royal donkeys. Still I was not deterred. I managed to spot three sats in about 15 minutes. Then the neighbor next door on the other side, well, the neighbor's girlfriend, decided that it was time for a smoke, so of course she had to turn on the outside light as well. So I had lights on either side of me. So I threw a mental hissy fit and headed indoors. No sense being out there when I'm in a bad mood and can't see much. Too bad, too, since there were lots of bright, hard-to-miss satellites this evening, including two passes of the ISS. I missed the longer one at 7:30pm due to a poopy diaper. It was only going to be 1 minute long and in the SE, so I really didn't have a chance on that one anyways. The next one was going to be... 4 seconds.... and still low in the west. Tomorrow, and for the next 5 days, is when the ISS passes are going to be good.

The wife got me a cool book from the library about sky watching using binoculars. In the first 5 pages I learned all kinds of shit; like where the north star is and, for people in the northern hemisphere, how it only ever deviates 1 degree in the sky from directly north at all times. the numer of degrees the north star is in the sky equals your latitude (so, in Ohio, the north star is going to be at about 45 degrees). The big dipper (the Big Bear) revolves around the north star (as does the little bear, aka the little dipper - which I saw for the first time this evening). Your fist, held at an arms length measures about 10 degrees in the sky (this helps when the charts say a satellite is going to be at 40 degrees in the east, you just put your fist out at the horizon, then go up 'four fists' and there you go. Holding your hand out at arms length and spreading your fingers is about 22 degrees. The span of the big dipper is about 25 degrees. The north star is slightly yellow which helps identify it as well. Good stuff.

Huh... I just realized I didn't put in the two satellites I saw on Saturday morning. I put those in this post as well. Lil N accompanied me outside and was hunting for coyotes. It was cute. I didn't have any tables to go from, so it was just a matter of me watching the sky. Sometimes it's nice to just look for them without any real direction. It's more of a surprise when you spot them.

Here's the time-line of the morning of:
Date: 23-Oct-2010 Saturday

6:53am - SeaSat 1 - 2.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1978-064-A
First sighting! This object is a satellite named SeaSat 1. It is an ocean observation satellite for monitoring ocean currents, wave heights and sea surface temperature. Launched in 1978, it was pretty impressive. It was the first satellite designed for remote sensing of the oceans. It was also the first satellite to have synthetic aperture radar (SAR) (aka, take several scans using a radar to get a picture than what is possible by just doing one scan). Ha! Get this! SeaSat operated for 10 days until it shorted out on Oct 10, 1978. Unbeknownst to the scientists who developed SEASAT, the satellite was sensitive enough to be able to detect the wakes of submerged submarines. The conspiracy theory is that the military shut down SEASAT due to concerns that possibly a foreign military might be able to intercept the data from SEASAT and use it for recon. Cool story!

7:00am - Korons-Foton Rocket - 3.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2009-003-B
First sighting! This object is a Tsyklon-3 rocket body. This particular rocket launched the CORONAS-Photon satellite. This is the third satellite of the Russian CORONAS (Complex ORbital Observations Near-Earth of Activity of the Sun) program and the international LWS (Living With A Star) program. The satellite was designed to "investigate the processes of free energy accumulation in the sun's atmosphere, accelerated particle phenomena and solar flares, and the correlation between solar activity and magnetic storms on Earth". Unfortunately, due to a design flaw in the power supply, it fried after 11 months of operation.

Here's the time-line of this evening:
Date: 25-Oct-2010 Monday

7:34pm - Rosat - 2.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1990-049-A
First sighting! This object is the German ROSAT satellite, a x-ray satellite telescope. It was launched from Cape Canaveral in 1990 using a Delta II rocket. The satellite is named after Wilhelm Röntgen (short for Röntgensatellit). It's mission was designed for 5 years, but was extended by another 4 years. It ceased operations in 1999 after several main components failed one after another. Read up on this one as some suggest it's failure was due to a cyber-attach on some of NASA computers.

7:43pm - Zi Yuan-2B -or- JB-3 - 3.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 202-049-A
This object is the Zi Yuan 2B satellite which is part of the Chinese Zi Yuan-2 (Resource-2) program. While this satellite was reported to be a civilian earth observation satellite, it is possibly one of the the first chinese imaging recon satellites.

7:47pm - Shijian6-3 LMr - 2.5 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2008-053-C
First sighting! This is a Long March 4B rocket used to launch one of the Shi Jian 6 pairs (6E and 6F) of satellites.

17 objects on Oct 22

This might be a speed record. I went out around 7:25pm and came back in around 8:35pm. In a little over an hour I saw 17 objects. It didn't even seem like I was rushing. This evening was special because I saw all three of the COSMO-SkyMed satellites (including the first sighting of SkyMed 2). The fourth (and final) SkyMed satellite is set to be launched around Halloween.

Here's the time-line of this evening:
Date: 22-Oct-2010 Friday

7:28 PM - SkyMed 1 - 3.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2007-023-A
Launched on June 8th 2007, this is the first of the SkyMed satellites.

7:28 PM - Resurs 1-4 Rocket - 3.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-043-G
Sighting #12... almost halfway to #25

7:30 PM - Nimiq 4 Tnk - 2.7 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2008-044-B
This object is a Russian Breeze (Briz-M) upper stage rocket tank of the Proton-M rocket. This rocket launched a telecom sat for Bell TV and EchoStar (Dish Network) - Nimiq is Inuit for 'force that binds things together'. Unlike last time I spotted this object (9/27/2010), it did not appear to be strobing.

7:33 PM - IRS 1D - 3.6 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1997-057-A
First sighting! This object, IRS 1D, is one of many Indian Remote Sensing satellites. These satellites are for earth observation which help support the local economy by imaging water resources, agriculture areas and forests.

7:35 PM - Shijian 7 LM Rocket - 4.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2005-027-B
This is my third observation of this Long March / Chang Zheng 2D rocket.

7:48 PM - Tansuo 1 LM2r - 3.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2004-012-C
This is my seventh observation of this Long March 2C rocket.

7:55 PM - Cosmos 1220 - 3.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1980-089-A
This object is Kosmos 1220, a Russian ELINT satellite. Now, you might say "Oh, you've seen a thousand of those already". However this one is different. It seems the Russians developed two different ELINT systems. One is the Tselina system, which I've seen many many many of these. This one however, is for the other system known as the US system developed by the Russian Navy. This particular satellite is a US-P model.

7:57 PM - Lacrosse 2 - 1.6 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1991-017-A
This is my 2nd sighting of Lacrosse 2, the NRO recon satellite.

7:58 PM - ERBS - 2.8 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1984-108-B
This object is the ERSB satellite. This is my second sighting of this object.

7:58 PM - SkyMed 3 - 3.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2008-054-B
Launched on October 25th 2008, this is the third of the SkyMed satellites. This is my first sighting of this satellite.

8:06 PM - Cosmos 2228 - 3.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1992-094-A
Second day in a row for this guy, which of course is a Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite.

8:07 PM - Cosmos 1315 - 3.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1981-103-A
First sighting! This object is Kosmos 1315, a Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite. It was launched in 1981 using a Vostok-2M rocket.

8:11 PM - OrbitalEx Cn Rocket - 2.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2007-006-G
This is my third observation of this Atlas 5 Centaur upper state in three consecutive days.

8:16 PM - SkyMed 2 - 5.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2007-059-A
Launched on December 9th 2007, this is the second of the SkyMed satellites. I had been trying to catch this one for the past couple of days but it kept eluding me until this evening. This is my first sighting of this satellite (so, of the three I saw this evening, two were 'first sightings').

8:18 PM - Cosmos 975 Rocket - 2.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1978-004-B
First sighting! This object is a Vostok-2M rocket used to launch Kosmos 975, a Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite, on 10 January 1978.

8:22 PM - Lacrosse 3 - 2.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1997-064-A
This is Lacrosse 3, the NRO recon satellite.

8:25 PM - Cosmos 1825 Rocket - 3.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1987-024-B
First sighting! This object is a Tsyklon-3 rocket used to launch Kosmos 1825, a Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite, in 1987.

10 more on 10-21

Went out for about an hour this evening.

Here's the time-line of this evening:
Date: 21-Oct-2010 Thursday

7:49 PM - Cosmos 2228 - 3.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1992-094-A
First sighting! This object was the Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite, Kosmos 2228. It was launched into space using a Tsyklon-3 rocket.

7:52 PM - Resurs 1-4 Rocket - 2.7 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-043-G
(insert Eric Clapton song) Hello old friend. Sighting #11.

7:57 PM - AMC 23 BrzTank - 1.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2005-052-C
This object is a Briz-M upper stage tank from a Russian Proton-M rocket. This particular rocket launched two payloads. AMC-23 (or as the NASA page has it, AMS-23) is a communications satellite which underwent quite a bit of ownership changes. According to Wikipedia: "Originally ordered by GE Americom as GE-2i, transferred to SES Americom before launch and renamed AMC-13, then transferred to Worldsat as Worldsat-3 before being transferred back to SES Americom as AMC-23 in early 2005. Transferred to SAT-GE when it split from SES Americom in 2007." This is my first sighting of this object.

8:14 PM - ERBS - 2.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1984-108-B
This is my first observation of the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite. Unlike most objects I've seen, this satellite was deployed by Sally Ride from the Space Shuttle Challenger during mission STS-41-G in 1984. Read the wiki to find out about the many firsts accomplished during this mission. Back to the ERBS, it's original mission was planned for two years. But ERBS, like the martian rovers Spirit and Opportunity, completed its original mission goals and then remained active and provided data for more than twenty years. By the way, the 'budget' in its name is not about it being built for a low cost, it was actually studying a phenomenon known as the 'radiation budget'.

8:14 PM - SJ 12 LM Rocket - 4.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2010-027-B
This is the rocket body for a Chang Zheng-2D (str.). It's also known as a Long March 2D. Per Gunter's Space Page: "SJ 12 (Shijian 12) is a research satellite for rendezvous technology and satellite inspection. It made a rendezvous with SJ 6F in August 2010. Possibly physical contact between the satellites was established." Interesting.

8:19 PM - Helios 1B - 2.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1999-064-A
Hi! Remember me? I'm Helios 1, a French photo-recon satellite. Brush up on your mythology: In Greek mythology, the sun was personified as Helios. The end.

8:26 PM - shooting star??? - 3.0-ish Magnitude
Int'l Designator: nope
Honestly, this seems more like a flare than a shooting star... but nothing on the sites came anywhere near that area, so I don't have much choice but to call it a shooting star. For all I know, it could be something from the Orionids (though, at this time of night, I have no idea where Orion would be in the sky). Also of note, this is my 150th object observed.

8:27 PM - MeaSat 3 BrTnk - 2.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2206-056-B
This is one of the objects that I saw during the super mega session on Oct 8th. This is the Briz-M upper stage tank of a Proton-M rocket. This particular rocket launched the Malaysian MEASAT-3 communications satellite. It is one of four in the MEASAT Satellite Systems.

8:29 PM - OrbitalEx Cn Rocket - 2.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2007-006-G
I saw this yesterday (Oct 20th 2010). This object is the Centaur second state for an Atlas 5 rocket. OrbitalEx actually sounds a bit like Shi Jian 12 (recall NASA refers to it as "an American military (DARPA) minisatellite ... intended to test capabilities for autonomous rendezvous, refueling and component replacement". It appears that the name of the satellite was actually ASTRO for Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations satellite. Orbital Express was actually the name of the mission in which ASTRO and NEXTSat were launched and showed that ASTRO could dock with NEXTSat and refuel it.

8:34 PM - Cosmos 1455 - 2.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1983-037-A
This object is the Kosmos 1455 satellite, a Tselina-D model Russian ELINT satellite. It was launched into orbit by a Russian Tsyklon-3 rocket.

15 on 10-20

After managing to see a couple of Orionids this morning, I spent a good hour and half outside on the evening of 10-20-2010. It 57 degrees and a bit windy. I was without a coat, and I have to admit I started to get a bit chillllllly towards the end. Around 8:30pm was about the time I started shivering , but I wanted to try to catch Lacrosse 2 and Lacrosse 3 since both were going to be fairly bright, so I would keep telling myself... (insert teeth-chattering noise) "Ok, there's only 5 minutes til the next satellite"... "Ok, only 20 more minutes until I see Lacrosse 3".

Here's the time-line of this evening:
Date: 20-Oct-2010 Wednesday

7:30pm - Cosmos 2219 Rocket - 2.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1992-076-B
This object is a Zenit-2 rocket body which launched Kosmos 2219, a Russian Tselina-2 ELINT satellite.

7:32pm - Cosmos 1626 - 2.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1985-009-A
This object was the Russian Tselina-D ELINT satellite, Kosmos 1626.

7:34pm - Gbstr 26 Dl Rocket - 4.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1999-041-E
This object was a Delta 2 rocket body. This particular rocket launched four Globalstar satellites which are used for satellite phones and low-speed data communications. of note, Globalstar had four Delta II launches in 1999 - all of which were successful.

7:36pm - Shijian 7 LM Rocket - 3.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2005-024-B
This was a Long March 2D rocket body (also known as Chang Zheng 2D) which was used to launch Shijian 7, an 'experimental' satellite.

7:39pm - Cosmos 2056 Rocket - 3.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1990-004-B
This object was a Kosmos-3M rocket used to launch the Russian Strella-2 government communications satellite Kosmos 2056. This is my first sighting of this rocket.

7:41pm - MeaSat 3 BrTnk - 2.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2006-056-B
This object was an upper stage Briz-M tank from a Proton-M rocket which was used to launch MeaSAT 3, a Malaysian geostationary communications satellite.

7:57pm - Helios 1B - 2.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1999-064-A
Helios 1B is a French photo-reconnaissance satellite. It was launched from the French Guiana aboard an Ariane 20 rocket. Unfortunately, due to power supply failures, it has been left to disintegrate (though, obviously, it is still in a decaying orbit).

7:57pm - IRAS Rocket - 5.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1983-004-B
This is my first sighting of this Delta 3910 rocket that was used to put the IRAS telescope into orbit.

8:10pm - Meteor 2-13 Rocket - 5.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1985-119-B
First sighting! This object is a Tsyklon-3 rocket body which was used to launch a Russian Meteor-2 weather satellite.

8:16pm - Resurs 1-4 Rocket - 2.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-043-G
I'm starting to lose count.... sighting #10?

8:41pm - Cosmos 1025 Rocket - 3.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1978-067-B
This is my first sighting of this object. This object is a Tsyklon-3 rocket body which was used to launch ... Kosmos 1025 which was a boilerplate test. (A boilerplate is basically a mock-up that is used to test size, weight, aerodynamics, etc. Kosmos 1025 (the boilerplate itself) decayed recently (10 March 2007).

8:46pm - OrbitalEx Cn Rocket - 2.6 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2007-006-G
This object is the Centaur second state for an Atlas 5 rocket. This particular rocket had six different payloads. The site I use named it after one of the more interesting payloads which was, I guess, called OrbitalEx which NASA describes as "an American military (DARPA) minisatellite ... intended to test capabilities for autonomous rendezvous, refueling and component replacement". Cool! Oh, and... first sighting!

8:49pm - Iridium 41 - 6.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1997-069-B
This one of many Iridium satellites. But this is my first sighting of Iridium 41.

8:49pm - Lacrosse 2 - 1.7 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1991-017-A
One of the goals of this evening was to catch the remainder of the existing Lacrosse satellites. There have been five Lacrosse satellites, but only four are still in orbit (Lacrosse 1 decayed in 1997). I can say that this evening I accomplished that goal. This is Lacrosse 2.

9:04pm - Lacrosse 3 - 3.5 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1997-064-A
And this object is Lacrosse 3.

And a first for both of those!!!

Interesting (to me)

For the years between 1970 and 2010, I have seen at least one object from each of those years with the exception of 7 years (1970, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1979, 1986 and 1989). And that's with not even trying to see something from every year! I guess when you've had 125 observations, you're bound to cover quite a few years.

The earliest object I've seen so far is from 1961 (1961-015-C - Ablestar 008). The newest object so far are from the launch of the Shijian-6G and 6H satellites launched on Oct 6th (2010-051-A/B/C/D).

Top o' the morn' and the Orionids

Lil N had an EARLY doc appt this morning, so I was up early as well. Luckily for me, lil A stayed asleep. I knew that the Orionids (a meteor shower which they suspect is caused by the remants of Halley's comet) were going to be peaking tomorrow, so I knew that the odds of me being able to see something this morning were pretty good since the moon had already set. And... I did. w00t! I also saw a satellite. Yay!

The peak is tomorrow. Orion is high in the SOUTH in the morning. Evening viewing (starting around 11pm) is unfavorable because the full moon is approaching and pretty much washes out the sky. Early morning (4 - 7am) is much more preferred since the moon has mostly set by that point.

The meteor shower has a center that is to the east and up of Orions right shoulder (i.e. you'll be looking to the upper left of Orion.

Here is a fairly simple blog entry which explains where to look and has a nice image so you can see where the meteors should originate from.

Here's the time-line of this morning:
Date: 20-Oct-2010 Wednesday

6:38am - ATLAS 3B R/B -or- NOSS 3-3 Rocket - 3.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2005-004-B
First sighting! This object is an Atlas III-B rocket body. It was used to launch the pair of satellites for NOSS 3-3 (Naval Ocean Surveillance System). The NOSS programs are operated by the U.S. Navy and detect radio transmissions from ships. Because the satellites are either in pairs or triads, they can use the radio detections to pin-point the location of a ship. Of note about this rocket, is that this was the last Atlas III-B (and the last Atlas III altogether) launched.

6:38am - Orionid meteor

6:42am - Orionid meteor

six on 10-19

It was a bit cloudy this evening which combined with the bright moon made observing a bit difficult. But, I still I got to see a few. It was also a bit cool out. I had my list all printed up... and then I left it at work. I had to 'old school' it and actually write some down frantically on a couple pieces of paper using a sharpie. The satellites are occurring earlier and earlier. Not sure what that's going to do to my viewing options in the winter since I usually don't get a chance to start viewing until 8 / 8:30pm.

Here's the time-line of this evening:
Date: 19-Oct-2010 Tuesday

7:47pm - Cosmos 2219 Rocket - 2.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1992-076-B
This object is a Zenit-2 rocket body which launched the Russian ELINT satellite Kosmos 2219. This is my second sighting for this one.

7:51pm - Cosmos 2333 Rocket - 2.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1996-051-B
This object is a Zenit-2 rocket body which launched the Russian ELINT satellite Kosmos 2333. This is my second sighting for this one.

8:10pm - SkyMed 1 - 2.9 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2007-023-A
This object is the satellite COSMO-SkyMed 1 which if you recall part of the COSMO-SkyMed program put into space by Italy for 'earth observation' which usually means 'spying on people' but supposedly also has civilian uses as well. It uses synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and has global coverage of Earth.

8:12pm - Cosmos 1626 Rocket - 3.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1985-009-B
This is a Tsyklon-3 rocket body which launched the Russian ELINT satellite Kosmos 1626. This is my first sighting for this one. I saw the actual Kosmos 1626 for the first time just a few days ago (Oct 15 2010).

8:40pm - Resurs 1-4 Rocket - 2.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-043-G
Sighting #9 for this old faithful.

8:41pm - Cosmos 1455 - 2.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1983-037-A
First sighting! This object is the Kosmos 1455 satellite, a Tselina-D model Russian ELINT satellite.

super short session

This evening was a super short session. 10 minutes to be exact. But I managed to nab 4 objects in that time. I knew it was going to be short when I opened the door and heard my neighbor out in his hot-tub watching a football game or maybe a baseball game. Then, 6 minutes in, the dog next door did his duty to alert the owner that there was someone out there. They of course told him to 'be quiet' (they are nice people and literally said just that in a hushed tone). Poor dog was just doin' his ... erm her job. Then I heard the neighbor's girlfriend arrive outside which is when I called it an evening. The wife already worries that the neighbors think I'm a peeping tom, but remaining out there with my next door neighbor and his girlfriend in the hot tub would have just been weird. There wasn't anything that I ABSOLUTELY HAD TO SEE* and coming in early would mean I would get to spend some extra time with the wife. So it's all good.

Here's the time-line of this evening:
Date: 17-Oct-2010 Sunday

7:36pm - Cosmos 2237 Rocket - 2.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1993-016-B
This is a Zenit-2 rocket body which launched Cosmos 2237, a Tselina-2 ELINT Russian satellite.

7:37pm - Shijian 7 LM Rocket - 3.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2005-024-B
This is my first sighting of this specific Chang Zheng-2D (str.) rocket body (aka Long March 2D). And no, I don't know what the str. means yet. This rocket was used to launch the only Shijian 7 experimental scientific satellite.
7:42pm - JB-3 or Zi Yuan-2B - 3.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2002-049-A
First sighting! This is one of three Zi Yuan-2 (or Ziyuan-2)satellites. This happens to be the middle child ZY 2B (or JB-3 2). Reported by the Chinese government (and NASA) to be an earth imaging satellite however some speculate that is one of the Chinese governments first high resolution military imaging satellites.

7:45pm - Cosmos 2058 Rocket - 3.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1990-010-B
This is a Tsyklon-3 rocket body which launched Cosmos 2058, a Tselina-R ELINT Russian satellite. This is the first spotting of a Tselina-R launch. There have only been four of them to date (Cosmos 1508, 2058, 2151 and 2242) between 1986 and 1993. One could assume that no more will be put into orbit.








* OK, I have to admit there were a couple of PAM satellites up there. Yeah, I don't know what they are either. There were a couple of other new names in this list for this evening: GPS 53 PAM, NAVSTAR 53 R/B (PAM-D), OrbitalEx Cn Rocket, Cosmos 2469 Pl or P1 (I'm not sure which), IRAS rocket, Resurs DK-1 and Lacrosse 2. I attempted to see Lacrosse 2 a couple of days ago, however it's path is quite odd. Usually you'll see them go from N to S or E to W or some direction to another, but in general they equate into moving horizontally. Lacrosse 2 (at least at the moment) is going NNW 10 degrees to NNW 35 degrees when it disappears. In other words, it's traveling up (vertically) in a straight line. That can be hard to spot, even more so since its time being visible is also short.

Oct 15 - ten sightings

(I should be watching the OSU game, which is on behind me, but it's better if I keep my nose away from the stench that is the game that is currently in progress...)

Nearly a week since my last session. It was nice to take a break.

One thing I've meant to mention since maybe my third or fourth session is that the eyes can play tricks on you. Sometimes you SWEAR something is moving and then, the more you look at it you realize... no... no it's not.

Anyhoo... The start of this session was a bit awkward*. M was out getting groceries and lil N was vegged out in front of the TV. So I would look at my sheet, go out, spot something and then come back in.

Here's the time-line of this evening:
Date: 15-Oct-2010 Friday

7:38pm - IGS 1 H2A Rocket - 2.6 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2003-009-C
First sighting! This object is the rocket body of a Japanese H2-A (or HII-A). This rocket launched 2 IGS (Information Gathering Satellite) satellites. This was the first launch of this particular satellite program. One of the satellites was an optical spy satellite. The other was a SAR satellite.

8:02pm - Cosmos 1626 - 2.7 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1985-009-A
This object is the Russian Cosmos 1626 satellite. This particular satellite is used for ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) and is part of the Tselina-D program. This is my first sighting of this object.

8:18pm - Cosmos 405 - 3.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1971-028-A
First sighting! This object, Cosmos 405, is one of two older satellites I was trying to spot. Launched in 1971, this is the second Tselina-D satellite launched into orbit. Tselina-D satellites were launched between the years of 1970 and 1992. The final Tselina-D should have been launched in 1994, however this launch failed.

I saw this one at the same time as I saw TacSat-3. Read below for more on that.

8:18pm - TacSat 3 - 3.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2009-028-A
This object is TacSat-3 which is a U.S. recon satellite used to provide real-time data to troops on the ground. This is the second time for me seeing this satellite. The first was on October 10th 2010.

The cool thing about the Cosmos 405 and TacSat-3 sighting is that I could see them at the same time. Now, you could say I've done this before. That is true. I've seen satellites chasing each other. However, this case is different. Instead of them travelling in the same direction, they were on very different paths. Cosmos 405 was heading north to south, while TacSat 3 was heading west to east. Also interesting is that both satellites were the 28th launch of the year they were deployed, however they were deployed 38 years apart.

8:32pm - Cosmos 540 Rocket - 3.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1972-104-B
Another first! This object was the second of the old objects I was trying to spot this evening. This is a Kosmos-3M rocket body which, in 1972, launched Cosmos 540 (also still in orbit) which is a military and government communications satellite.

8:38pm - Resurs 1-4 Rocket - 2.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-043-G
Sighting number 8.

8:40pm - Cosmos 2333 Rocket - 2.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1996-051-B
This is my first sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket body which launched the Russian ELINT satellite Cosmos 2333.

8:41pm - Cosmos 1452 Rocket - 4.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1983-031-B
This is my first sighting of this Kosmos-3M rocket body which, in 1983, launched Cosmos 1452 (also still in orbit) which is a military and government communications satellite.

8:44pm - Shijian 6G Rocket - 4.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2010-051-C
This is a Long March 4B rocket which launched the latest pair of Shi Jian 6 satellites (SJ-6G and SJ-6H).

8:51pm - Cosmos 2219 Rocket - 2.5 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1992-076-B
First sighting! This object is Zenit-2 rocket body. It launched the Cosmos 2219 Tselina-2 ELINT satellite.





* Have you looked at the word 'awkward'. It's a weird looking word with the 'wkw' in there.

Finally finished the October 8th session where I saw 25 objects. Whew!
You can read it here.

Evening session

Managed to get back from Cinci in time to head outside of a little bit. Finally got to see the Hubble Space Telescope. I literally walked outside, turned to the south and there it was. Usually the Marysville lights kill the skyline over that way, but this evening it was really clear with zilcho clouds so it wasn't too bad.

BTW, I'm still working on the session from Oct 8th when I saw 25 objects. I'll post something when I finally get that session written up.

Here's the time-line of this evening:
Date: 10-Oct-2010 Sunday

8:36pm - Hubble Space Telescope - 3.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1990-037-B
FINALLY! I've been trying to catch the Hubble Space Telescope for a while. But it seems like it is always in the south which is always flushed out with light pollution from downtown Marysville. Regardless, tonight was the lucky night. It was nice and bright. Here are some pics from the Hubble Space Telescope.

8:37pm - TacSat 3 - 3.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2009-028-A
First sighting! TacSat 3 is a U.S. recon satellite. It is designed to show that real-time data can be collected from space and then provided to combatant commanders in the field. The satellite contains all of the following: The Advanced Responsive Tactically Effective Military Imaging Spectrometer (ARTEMIS) hyperspectral imager, the Ocean Data Telemetry Microsatellite Link and the Space Avionics Experiment. All that stuff sounds cool. It can get data to the field 10 minutes after it is observed from space. Sweeeeeeeet!

8:42pm - Tansuo 1 LM2r - 3.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2004-012-C
It wasn't until today that I realized that I've seen this object 6 times. The first time I saw this one was during my first satellite observation session on September 13th. I don't think I need to speak about this one anymore (since I've probably talked about it five times already.

8:59pm - Resurs 1-4 Rocket - 2.6 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-043-G
Observation #7 for ye olde and bright faithful. Also, according to my spreadsheet, this is also my 100th object observed!!!

9:00pm - Cosmos 2227 Rocket - 2.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1992-093-B
This is my first sighting of this Zenit-2 rocket body. It launched the Kosmos 2227 satellite which is a Russian electronic intelligence satellite from the Tselina-2 program.

9:04pm - Meteor 3M Rocket- 4.4 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2001-056-F
This is another Zenit-2 rocket body (and another first sighting). It was used to launch 5 satellites: Meteor-3M 1, Kompass, Badr B, Maroc-Tubsat and Reflector. I observed the Meteor-3M 1 satellite on October 6th, but haven't seen any of the other satellites thus far.

9:13pm - APEX - 4.5 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1994-046-A
This object is a satellite for the Advanced Photovoltaic Experiment (APEX). The satellite was launched using a Pegasus rocket which is not your typical rocket since it is launched from an airplane. I tried reading about what the APEX studied, but my brain is a bit fried so... read it for yourself. :P Oh, and this is my first sighting of this satellite.

9:18pm - Cosmos 2237 Rocket - 2.3 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1993-016-B
This is another Zenit-2 rocket body (and again, another first sighting). It launched the Kosmos 2237 satellite which is yet another Russian ELINT (electronic intelligence) satellite.

9:18pm - Int1002BrzTank - 5.0 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2004-022-B
This is the second time I've seen this Briz-M upper stage tank. While the Briz-M deployed most of it's payloads, one blight on the Briz-M's record is the launch of an Arabsat communications satellite in 2006. The launched failed and left the Briz-M and the satellite in an unusable orbit. A year later, the Briz-M exploded and created 1000 pieces of space debris. Oooof!

First morning satellite

Lil N got up at 6:00am after sleeping through the night (despite even falling out of bed). So, I went outside to stare at the sky. Lil N followed as well. Lil N was fascinated by the stars and kept saying 'there's Mars' and 'there's Earth'. Armed with nothing more than a pen and paper, I finally spotted a satellite going straight overhead. I also saw a shooting star after that.

Here's the time-line of this morning:
Date: 10-Oct-2010 Sunday

6:16am - CloudSat DPAF - 4.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 2006-016-D
First sighting! This object is DPAF (Dual Payload Attach Fitting) from a Delta 2 rocket. This particular rocket launched two satellites: CALIPSO and CloudSat. CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) is an American-French (NASA-CNES) meteorological satellite. CloudSat is an American meteorological satellite.

6:20am - shooting star
WOOSH!

put it on the table (and other random non-satellite related stuff)

Our new table FINALLY arrived on Thursday. It's be 16 or so weeks in the making (after they told us it would be 8-12 weeks). Grrr. Dinette Gallery is not on my happy list. But everything is here now and I am very happy with the table and chairs.

Been watching Season 3 of Big Bang theory (we're trying to catch up as quickly as possible by getting them from the Marysville library... who is ahead of the Columbus library in that aspect). I can't get over how damn funny that show is. I hope they take their time in jumping the shark.

Been keeping up with the second season of Glee. We're both disappointed with the episodes thus far. Rachel seems like a complete bitch this season. And then there are just weird things that don't make any sense, like Finn, despite being in a dancing glee club, suddenly doesn't know how to dance one bit when he tries out for cheerleading, which in itself is just stupid. During the last episode of Glee, we caught ourselves watching more of the NOVA special called 'astrospies' which told about the US and USSR manned spy space stations programs. I had no idea that such programs were in place, let alone that the Russians actually managed to get it into space and had people on it. Check out the link above. It's way better than the last episode of Glee (imho).

When I got of the shower this morning at 6:15am, my daughter informed me "You smell like poop" and that "You pooped in the shower. PU!". Neither of which were true. What the heck? I was too tired to care, but not as tired as my wife who had to deal with lil N who got up at 4am this morning. Again, what the heck?

Anyways... it's 11:55pm and 6am comes fast.

Ok... I lied... here's a little bit about my satellite gazing: I had two really good sessions on Thurs and Fri. I'll write those up soon. This evening was insanely prolific. 25 sightings. I truly think that this number will be one which stands for a while. More on that later though.

G'night all!