FINALLY! VANGUARD I !

I've been trying to catch sight of this little chunk of history ever
since I found out it was still up there... My quest led me to scavenger
hunt for everything still in orbit from the 1950's, and resulted in a
number of rather dry posts in this group. My earliest attempt I can
find with a quick scan of my log was a try with 11x80 binoculars on
April 24th 2002, which resulted in the first of a string of failed
attempts. I spotted the launch rocket some time back, but I still
wanted that satellite...
Vanguard 1 was launched on March 17th 1958. I was a satellite
obsessed eight year old. I can still remember Khrueshchev derisively
referring to it as a "grapefruit," which wasn't all that far off due to
the fact that it was only 6 inches in diameter. I can also remember
learning in school, (probably from the "Weekly Reader,") how it had
discovered that the Earth was slightly "pear shaped." Big stuff for
those days... It was the world's fourth satellite successfully
launched, and it's now the oldest still in orbit.
There are a lot of photographs online of Vanguard 1, but I chose
instead these artistic renditions from my copy of Walt Disney's "MAN in
SPACE SATELLITES," (Dell, 10 cents) copyright 1958.
The first is off the cover, showing it's little six inch antenna
sprouting sphere studded with little solar panels...

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...1-picture.jpeg

The other jumps thirty years into the future, all the way to 1983,
showing a young HAM radio enthusiast listening to the radio signal of
Vanguard 1... (which actually fell silent long before that.)

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...5-picture.jpeg

Tonight, Heavens Above predicted a 10.9 magnitude pass through Aquila.
Sorta dimmish, but fairly bright for Vanguard 1. It's path would take
it past some easy to find stars, the night was clear and cool, and
although I didn't have my hopes up, I printed off the chart, double
checked the field in the Uranometria 2000, and put on my red monogoggle
to at least somewhat dark adapt my right eye. After setting up my old
C8 at the bottom of the hill by my house, I located the field the
satellite was predicted to pass through, set my shortwave radio on a
time signal, and waited for 10:11:16 when the satellite would pass
through my field of view. I held the position, slowly turning the right
ascension knob... I cranked up the power a couple of clicks on my
turret, going up to my 18mm eyepiece... I've never gone that high (111x)
looking for a satellite before, but I wanted to darken the sky a bit,
and I figured I must be pretty well aimed for this thing... Then, a few
seconds before 10:11, I flipped off my red monogoggle, put my somewhat
dark adapted eye over the eyepiece, and counted the radio beeps...
BINGO! At precisely 10:11:16 an easy dot drifted rapidly across my
field of view! A 6 inch metal sphere had drifted roughly 1000 miles
(1600 kilometers) over northern Louisiana, a little over 500 miles south
of my house in west central Iowa! Right on the old bazoo, as one of the
mercury astronauts once referred to his landing!
I was eight years old when this dinky little ball first captured my
rapt attention. Now, I'm 58 and it did it again...
Marty

"Marty" wrote

I've been trying to catch sight of this little chunk of history ever
since I found out it was still up there...

Marty, go pour yourself an Old Milwaukee. "It doesn't get any better than
this." Great story!! I love your "old school amateur astronomy" stories.

Howrd

Howard Lester wrote:

I've been trying to catch sight of this little chunk of history ever
since I found out it was still up there...

Marty, go pour yourself an Old Milwaukee. "It doesn't get any better than
this." Great story!! I love your "old school amateur astronomy" stories.

I'd like to add my congratulations, although I'd suggest a Highland Park
18yo to mark such an occasion.

A damn fine accomplishment deserves a damn fine dram.

Jim
--
"Well, well. We've come a long way from the Prime Minister's
exploding cake." - Adam West, Batman.

http://www.UrsaMinorBeta.co.uk http://twitter.com/GreyAreaUK

Quite an accomplishment Marty. I'd be interested in where you found your
info on which old satellites are still in orbit. I worked on building
components for a number of satellites launched in the 1960's. It would be
fun for me to see if I could spot any of those.

--
Tom Hise

I've been trying to catch sight of this little chunk of history ever
since I found out it was still up there...

You know, I saw the title of this, and I thought, "Big deal!" But it *is* a
"big deal!" I didn't know it was bright enough to be visible in any
telescope smaller than Keck. Congratulations!
--
Curtis Croulet
Temecula, California
33°27'59"N, 117°05'53"W

On Sun, 24 Aug 2008 23:27:38 -0500, (Marty) wrote:

I've been trying to catch sight of this little chunk of history ever
since I found out it was still up there...

You had better luck than Carl Seyfert did. He went out on the roof of
Vanderbilt's Dyer Observatory to catch a glimpse of a satellite in '57
or '58 and fell off! He was very badly hurt by the fall.

Bud

"Marty" wrote in message
...
I've been trying to catch sight of this little chunk of history ever
since I found out it was still up there... My quest led me to scavenger
hunt for everything still in orbit from the 1950's, and resulted in a
number of rather dry posts in this group. My earliest attempt I can
find with a quick scan of my log was a try with 11x80 binoculars on
April 24th 2002, which resulted in the first of a string of failed
attempts. I spotted the launch rocket some time back, but I still
wanted that satellite...
Vanguard 1 was launched on March 17th 1958. I was a satellite
obsessed eight year old. I can still remember Khrueshchev derisively
referring to it as a "grapefruit," which wasn't all that far off due to
the fact that it was only 6 inches in diameter. I can also remember
learning in school, (probably from the "Weekly Reader,") how it had
discovered that the Earth was slightly "pear shaped." Big stuff for
those days... It was the world's fourth satellite successfully
launched, and it's now the oldest still in orbit.
There are a lot of photographs online of Vanguard 1, but I chose
instead these artistic renditions from my copy of Walt Disney's "MAN in
SPACE SATELLITES," (Dell, 10 cents) copyright 1958.
The first is off the cover, showing it's little six inch antenna
sprouting sphere studded with little solar panels...

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...1-picture.jpeg

The other jumps thirty years into the future, all the way to 1983,
showing a young HAM radio enthusiast listening to the radio signal of
Vanguard 1... (which actually fell silent long before that.)

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...5-picture.jpeg

Tonight, Heavens Above predicted a 10.9 magnitude pass through Aquila.
Sorta dimmish, but fairly bright for Vanguard 1. It's path would take
it past some easy to find stars, the night was clear and cool, and
although I didn't have my hopes up, I printed off the chart, double
checked the field in the Uranometria 2000, and put on my red monogoggle
to at least somewhat dark adapt my right eye. After setting up my old
C8 at the bottom of the hill by my house, I located the field the
satellite was predicted to pass through, set my shortwave radio on a
time signal, and waited for 10:11:16 when the satellite would pass
through my field of view. I held the position, slowly turning the right
ascension knob... I cranked up the power a couple of clicks on my
turret, going up to my 18mm eyepiece... I've never gone that high (111x)
looking for a satellite before, but I wanted to darken the sky a bit,
and I figured I must be pretty well aimed for this thing... Then, a few
seconds before 10:11, I flipped off my red monogoggle, put my somewhat
dark adapted eye over the eyepiece, and counted the radio beeps...
BINGO! At precisely 10:11:16 an easy dot drifted rapidly across my
field of view! A 6 inch metal sphere had drifted roughly 1000 miles
(1600 kilometers) over northern Louisiana, a little over 500 miles south
of my house in west central Iowa! Right on the old bazoo, as one of the
mercury astronauts once referred to his landing!
I was eight years old when this dinky little ball first captured my
rapt attention. Now, I'm 58 and it did it again...
Marty


Excellent!!! ...as ALWAYS!!!

Thanks for SHARING this, and other personal experiences under the stars...
I may have said this before, but your interests and enthusiasm remind me of
Leslie Peltier...

Maybe YOU should consider writing a book!!! Starlight Nights is STILL a
favorite of mine...

Jan

Latitude: 33.6
Longitude: -112.3
http://community.webshots.com/user/janowen21

Howard Lester was saying
I love your "old school amateur
astronomy" stories.

Thanks Howard, but that's about the only way I know how to do it...
Marty

I'd suggest a Highland Park 18yo to mark
such an occasion.
A damn fine accomplishment deserves a
damn fine dram.
Jim

In this part of rural Iowa, "Templeton Rye" comes closest to the nectar
of the gods.
Years ago, I could drink like a pipe in the floor...
Marty

Tom Hise was saying
I'd be interested in where you found your
info on which old satellites are still in
orbit. I worked on building components
for a number of satellites launched in
the 1960's. It would be fun for me to see
if I could spot any of those.

That WOULD be so cool! You can go to "Heavens Above" and go to the part
where you can search for a satellite from the data base. You can type
in the name of an individual satellite, or, like I did when looking for
50's stuff, type in a year... the whole year comes up, and it tells what
was launched and whether or not it's still up there. The list is
manageably short for 1958 and 1959. All I have left is the Vanguard
2 satellite, and it should be fairly easy. Bigger and brighter than
Vanguard 1.
Marty