1. 1 Satellite Tracking Using a Portable 8” Aperture Telescope July 26, 2006 Jayson Nakakura University of Hawaii at Manoa

2. 2 Trex Enterprises’ Maui  Kahului, Maui  Mentors – Riki Maeda and Daron Nishimoto  US Government Support – Defense – Homeland Security – Force Protection  Projects – CMOS Image Sensors – Adaptive Optics – Deployable Tracking Systems

3. 3 Deployable Tracking System  Why Track Satellites? – Need to know satellite activity  Friendly or Spy?  What is it doing?  Where is it looking? – Quantity  Many transportable telescopes  Not dependent on observatories (i.e. AEOS)  Tracking with Low Residual Error – Keeping Satellites Centered in the Field of View (FOV) as they orbit over head

4. 4 Conditions for Success Deployable Tracking System Mobility Accuracy Resolution Self Leveling North Finding GPS Enabled High Slew Speeds Precise Satellite Orbiting Data Large Mirror High Speed Camera

5. 5 Meade LX200GPS 8” Aperture (203 mm) Focus F = 2000mm 8 x 50mm Viewfinder GPS Alignment System True-Level Sensors North Electronic Sensors Slew Rate 8° per second Autostar II Control System

6. 6 Satellite Tracker Satellite Tracker processes Two Line Element Sets (TLES) to predict satellite orbits. The telescope uses this data to point towards and slew with the passing satellite. The predicted pass of COSMOS 1782

7. 7 Lunar Planetary Imager (LPI) Color CMOS Chip with a 640 x 480 pixel resolution

8. 8 LPI Imaging

9. 9 Instantaneous Field of View (IFOV)

10. 10 Albireo

11. 11 Albireo - 3x Magnification

12. 12 Conditions for Tracking  Weather  Terminator – The time period when satellites reflect sunlight, making them visible  A few hours after sunset  A few hours before sunrise  Satellite Magnitudes – Visibility of the satellites

13. 13 Finding Residual Error Take about 100 frames Find de-centered distances in arc-seconds Calculate average with a standard deviation

14. 14

15. 15 Autostar II Used for Manual Tracking Controls telescope slew direction Controls telescope slew speeds

16. 16 International Space Station (ISS)

17. 17 Tracking a Plane

18. 18 Average Residual Error

19. 19 Conclusion  Deployable Tracking System – With better software, it will successfully track satellites – With a much larger aperture, it should successfully image satellites Is Satellite Tracking Feasible? YesNo Able to slew with satellites Able to manually track satellites Able to image Able to manually track planes Unable to center when using Satellite Tracker Improvements? Satellite Tracker telescope controlling software Time

20. 20 Thank You Malika Moutawakkil Bell Lisa Hunter Hilary O’Bryan Riki Maeda Daron Nishimoto Wes Friewald Justin O’Brien John Hirata Suzanne Burns Uncle Kahu Charlie Kauluwehi Maxwell Sr.