2018-11-16
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Moore Observatory
CDK20N
SBIG STX-16803 camera
griz-bb-og-V filter wheel


Clearing after storms

Good seeing

Remotely operated
Set pointing on Mintaka

GOES-16 data

TLE from
https://celestrak.com/

Elevation and azimuth for Moore Observatory from
https://www.satellite-calculations.com/TLETracker/SatTracker.htm

Used observatory coordinates

38.345
85.53

TLE had an epoch that was 125 prior to this observation

Identified elevation azimuth on XEphem sky view
Turned on skyview updating every 10 seconds
Turned off telescope drive
Adjusted pointing iteratively until the reported altitude and azimuth of the 
  telescope matched the target coordinates for GOES-16
  
  163.6369 azimuth degrees (where 180 is south)
  44.31203 elevation degrees
  37456.75 range km


It took a few trial exposures to get the telescope at the predicted pointing,
but on the first one after that we see the satellite nearly center, quite
bright.  Ran different exposures to find one that did not saturate, then
different filters to see the color.  Last exposure is the drive turned on so the
satellite trails and the stars are tracked.

goes16_g_00011.fits  Exposure: 10.0    Date observation:  2018-11-17T06:19:51.426      
goes16_g_00012.fits  Exposure: 16.0    Date observation:  2018-11-17T06:21:10.646
goes16_g_00013.fits  Exposure: 128.0   Date observation:  2018-11-17T06:21:57.096
goes16_g_00014.fits  Exposure: 128.0   Date observation:  2018-11-17T06:30:40.438
goes16_g_00015.fits  Exposure: 128.0   Date observation:  2018-11-17T06:40:37.562
goes16_g_00016.fits  Exposure: 128.0   Date observation:  2018-11-17T06:43:52.764
goes16_g_00017.fits  Exposure: 64.0    Date observation:  2018-11-17T06:46:27.778
goes16_g_00018.fits  Exposure: 32.0    Date observation:  2018-11-17T06:48:02.051
goes16_r_00019.fits  Exposure: 32.0    Date observation:  2018-11-17T06:49:02.143
goes16_i_00020.fits  Exposure: 32.0    Date observation:  2018-11-17T06:50:05.277
goes16_V_00021.fits  Exposure: 32.0    Date observation:  2018-11-17T06:51:49.719
goes16_V_00022.fits  Exposure: 32.0    Date observation:  2018-11-17T06:53:03.666

The frames were bias and dark corrected (_d in name).  The last frame which is
tracked where the satellites trailed was processed to add astronomical
coordinates and from that the positions should be accurately known.  Stars move
from east to west, or tracking on stars, the satellites move from west to east.
The start of a trail will correspond to the start of the exposure.

The images (frame 15 and higher) show two satellites, so one should be GOES-16
but which one?  The pointing should have put it closest to the center of the
frame if the calculation of elevation and azimuth was correct.