Real Time Data record from a Satellite Track - COSMOS 1766 ---------------------------------------------------------- This record was obtained during the process of a satellite track using an optical instrument called a KINETO (KineTheodolite). This instrument is manu- factured by the Contraves Goerz Corporation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Contraves is well known to users of large scale, ultra-high accuracy instru- ments, and established its name as the Fecker Optical Company, starting in the late 1800's. The Allegheny Observatory Refractor in Pittsburgh, PA, was built by the Fecker Co. Contraves is best known to the satellite aficionados for building the optics and mounts for the GEODSS deep space surveillance network, owned by SAC/NORAD, and capable of 'resolving a basketball sized target at 20,000 mile range'. For information and inquiries, feel free to contact: Charles Belt Project Engineer Contraves Goerz Corporation 610 Epsilon Drive Pittsburgh, PA 15238 The KINETO instruments are used by test ranges from the Far East to White Sands. To typify their performance, the photos you all saw of the tragic shuttle CHALLENGER accident were taken by a similar instrument. In addition, those fantastic below-the aircraft photo sequences from the film "Top Gun" were taken by similar instruments. These instruments are used to track ground targets such as tanks, and aerial targets from slow drone aircraft to missiles, artillery shells, and satellites. This particular instrument mounts a pair of lenses, a Zoom lens of instrumentation accuracy (180-1800 mm), and a 100" Catadioptric lens of Contraves design, with better than 150 line pairs resolution for 75mm film, INVAR construction, etc. The instrument is remotely controlled by a set of DEC mini-computers (11/73 series), and uses a hybrid, 8 MHz, real-time video tracking unit developed for a military anti-aircraft unit. The electronics are all mounted in an air conditioned van, and the whole shebang is mobile. With this instrument, you can drive down the road, park, set up in about 1 Hour, and track a target. After the track, you can reduce the data, and obtain a printout (much like the one to follow) on the target's position in X,Y,Z or Az,El,Range in less than an hour. Then you pack up and go home! An RCA ISIT camera, unmodified, was placed behind the 100" lens for this track. Keplerian elements from TS Kelso's BBS were downloaded into a modified Keplerian/Gaussian routine, which commanded the instrument to follow the expected path of the satellite at a smooth 25 Hz data rate. An operator, looking through a 24x spotting scope of Contraves design, spotted the satellite, and the video tracker was locked onto it. As this track took place later in the evening, the satellite was not 'acquired' until low in its pass. A video tape of this and other tracks is being prepared, but must first be converted from CCIR-B (European video) to US video. I hope to have a copy in Mr. Kelso's hands before the end of November, 1987. The data listed here is reduced from a report of more than 7 Megabytes length, in which data was listed at every sample, or every 0.02 seconds. The Azimuth and Elevation data is accurate to within 5 arc seconds, after having been corrected by a Star Calibration run. The observation point is known to approximately 1 cm, having been surveyed by GPS, Phase II, and by a USGS benchmark some 1 mile from the site. X COORDINATE: -7.8500 LATITUDE: 40.5018 degrees Y COORDINATE: -17.6940 LONGITUDE: 280.1250 degrees Z COORDINATE: 2.2910 ALTITUDE: 280.2710 meters AZ ENCODER OFFSET: 90.0000 degrees EL ENCODER OFFSET: 0.0000 Note: 0 DEGREES AZ IS NORTH (TRUE). OBSERVATION SITE IS CENTERED AT X/Y/Z COORDINATE LISTED ABOVE. LAT/LONG/ALT DENOTES (0,0,0) POSITION WITH REGARD TO X/Y/Z POSITION OF TRACKING SYSTEM (CENTER OF AXES OF AN EL OVER AZ MOUNT). Key To this Report ------------------ Azimuth Corrected: Azimuth Angle to satellite. 0 is North, 90 is west, etc. Elevation Corrected: Elevation angle to satellite. 0 is true earth tangent (SGP earth model). Gate X and Y Offsets: Target is being tracked with a 0.258 degree Field of View (FOV) optic, using a video camera and a digitizing TV tracker. 1 pixel in X = 0.258/412 degrees offset from line of sight (LOS), 1 pixel in Y = 0.258/312 degrees offset from LOS. System Status codes: 6 = Video tracking a target 10 = Following predicted target of Satellite Satellite Tracking, Cosmos-1766, 8/21/87, DAY OF YEAR = 233 (UTC) Azimuth Elevation Gate X Gate Y TIME (UTC) Corrected Corrected Offset Offset System Hr:Mn:Sc.Frac Degrees Degrees pels pels Status ------------- ---------- ---------- ---- ---- ------- 02:44:10.3600 37.18012 18.86087 -1 72 6 02:44:15.3600 36.32608 18.29991 0 55 6 02:44:20.3600 35.51427 17.74453 0 42 6 02:44:25.3600 34.72655 17.19802 0 28 6 02:44:30.3600 33.96290 16.66128 1 12 6 02:44:35.3600 33.24500 16.13206 0 0 10 02:44:40.3600 32.55243 15.60542 0 1 6 02:44:45.3600 31.87913 15.08748 0 1 6 02:44:50.3600 31.22796 14.57929 0 1 6 02:44:55.3600 30.61033 14.07967 0 0 6 02:45:00.3600 30.01938 13.58486 -1 1 6 02:45:05.3600 29.44243 13.10378 0 0 6 02:45:10.3600 28.88360 12.62947 0 1 6 02:45:15.3600 28.34258 12.16515 0 1 6 02:45:20.3600 27.82903 11.70851 0 -1 6 02:45:25.3600 27.33728 11.25822 -1 -1 6 02:45:30.3600 26.85548 10.80969 0 3 6 02:45:35.3600 26.38829 10.37865 0 0 6 02:45:40.3600 25.93599 9.95480 0 0 6 02:45:45.3600 25.49752 9.53510 -1 -1 6 02:45:50.3600 25.07779 9.12352 1 0 6 02:45:55.3600 24.67592 8.71638 0 1 6 02:46:00.3600 24.28519 8.31604 -1 0 6 02:46:05.3600 23.90470 7.92289 0 0 6 02:46:10.3600 23.53176 7.53677 0 1 6 02:46:15.3600 23.17072 7.15865 0 0 6 02:46:20.3600 22.81886 6.78520 0 0 6 02:46:25.3600 22.48175 6.41724 0 0 6 02:46:30.3600 22.15748 6.05496 0 0 6 02:46:35.3600 21.84524 5.69769 0 1 6 02:46:40.3600 21.53822 5.34544 0 0 10 Charles Belt Editor's Note: Following are the NASA Two-Line Orbital Element Sets closest to the epoch of observation for Cosmos 1766. 1 16881U 87231.13532703 0.00000089 11939-4 0 1691 2 16881 82.5270 294.1478 0025449 107.3648 253.0377 14.73515749 56888 1 16881U 87235.54924374 0.00000088 11939-4 0 1711 2 16881 82.5268 290.0807 0025905 94.1852 266.2332 14.73517108 57534