Finding Vanguard 2

As I sit here typing, the astronauts on board the space shuttle are in
orbit upgrading and repairing the Hubble Space Telescope... a scenario
that seemed far, far, in the future when Vanguard 2 was launched a
little over 50 years ago on February 17th, 1959.
I was looking for the Vanguard 2 satellite simply because it was
the last thing still in orbit from the 50's that I hadn't seen yet.
Vanguard 2 LOOKS like us older guys visualize early satellites... a
polished sphere with antennas sticking out of it. Sputnik 1 sort of
trailed it's antennas. Sputnik 2, with the doomed wonder dog Laika,
looked sort of like a cross between a Mercury space capsule and a
cappuccino machine... Explorer 1 was sort of rocket shaped. Vanguard 1
(the oldest man made object still in orbit was studded with little solar
panels. Vanguard 3 had a sort of black witch's hat sticking out of one
side with a magnetometer inside. Explorer 7 began to evolve into the
more convenient geometrical forms of more modern satellites. But
Vanguard 2 was simple and round, 20inches, (50.8cm) in diameter,
sprouting antennas in different directions, like all the satellite
pictures we saw back in the 50's. According to wikipedia it was
"designed to measure cloud cover distribution over the daylight portion
of it's orbit." Here's a picture of it atop it's launch rocket...
http://claudelafleur.qc.ca/images/Vanguard-2A.jpg
ANYWAY ~ Heavens Above predicted a 10.3 magnitude pass WSW of my
house in West Central Iowa through the stars of Hydra tonight a little
after 11:00 pm. I set up my old C8 a little before 11:00 and turned on
a shortwave time signal. The night was clear, and unusually cool for
the middle of May at 47 degrees F. (A freeze warning from the weather
service tonight.) The bad news... The satellite's path would take it
across the light pollution dome of the Church of the Perpetually Lit
Parking Lot to my southwest. (A testament to man's primordial fear of
the dark, and the mistaken belief that the bad guys all go away when you
turn on the lights.) I could barely make out Crater, much less the
stars of Hydra. Fortunately, I'd checked the appearance of the star it
should "buzz" in the Uranometria 2000, and was able to confirm it in a
low power view... dim companions to my target star sort of gave it the
appearance of the lower end of Orion's sword. I clicked my turret up to
my 18mm eyepiece (111x) to darken the sky a bit. I covered my right eye
with my hand, trying to get a little dark adaptation as I tracked the
target star with my left eye. I listened to the beeps on the shortwave,
waiting for 11:08:06 when Vanguard 2 would pass close to my star... I
didn't have my hopes up with all the damn light pollution... a few
seconds after 11:06 a dim satellite passed through the upper edge of my
FOV... shoot, was that it??? Did I mistake a "6" for an "8"? I could
hardly count it as a confirmed sighting if that was the case... I
waited, listening to the voice and counting beeps... Then at precisely
11:08:06, a distinct dot sailed smoothly through the center of my FOV...
BINGO! I'd caught Vanguard 2 as it passed high over a spot west of
Tucson Arizona. I'd now seen everything observable still in orbit from
the 1950's! OK, maybe it's no big deal, but at least I'll quit posting
this stuff.
I took a quick look around at the constellations and broke stuff
down and brought it back in. My telescope is waiting for me to put it
back in it's case, so I'll hit the "send" button...
Marty

woops...
I'd caught Vanguard 2 as it passed high
over a spot west of Tucson Arizona.

I meant to say EAST of Tucson... cut me some slack... it's late...
Marty

"Marty" wrote in message
...
woops...
I'd caught Vanguard 2 as it passed high
over a spot west of Tucson Arizona.

I meant to say EAST of Tucson... cut me some slack... it's late...
Marty

Marty wrote:

waited, listening to the voice and counting beeps... Then at precisely
11:08:06, a distinct dot sailed smoothly through the center of my FOV...
BINGO! I'd caught Vanguard 2 as it passed high over a spot west of
Tucson Arizona. I'd now seen everything observable still in orbit from
the 1950's! OK, maybe it's no big deal, but at least I'll quit posting
this stuff.

Any time you accomplish something it's a big deal. Mazel Tov!

J

Marty wrote:
woops...
I'd caught Vanguard 2 as it passed high
over a spot west of Tucson Arizona.

I meant to say EAST of Tucson... cut me some slack... it's late...
Marty



No matter, THANX for a cool report.
I just got a GP mount with SS2K, and
have been programming in sat TLE's
for fun. Now if the weather would only
cooperate.....

Last night we had an outreach, and the
rain hit so suddenly, scope, and laptop
got soaked before I took several steps.
Oh well... (several scopes got wet here)

We have had only two clear nights in the
last month.

--
AM

http://sctuser.home.comcast.net

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