Satellite Trackers Given Extra Work

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31628, 14 March 1968, Page 14

Satellite Trackers Given Extra Work

Members of the Canterbury Astronomical Society, together with Christ’s College students, have been asked to make satellite observations for a British research institution.

They are already acting as a satellite tracking station for the Smithsonian Institution’s astrophysical observatory at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The institute’s representative in New Zealand, Mr N. E. Heath, a master at Christ’s College, said yesterday that a request for additional tracking observations had now come from Britain’s radio and space research station in Slough, Buckinghamshire. The American institute, he said, had about 65 tracking stations in various parts of the world, four of which were in New Zealand—at Auckland,

Nelson, Invercargill and Christchurch. All were engaged in identical work. Originally, the Canterbury society made visual observations, but the Smithsonian Institute had sent out two apogee telescopes, then two mountings and, later, two more telescopes, one of which was sent to Invercargill. The institute issued regular predictions, and it was the job of the Canterbury society to watch out for the satellites and to mark their positions in relation to altitude, time, and azimuth bearing. These observations were forwarded to the institute and along with those from the other 64 tracking stations, were fed into a computer wihch tried to predict future orbits. In addition to an observatory on the roof of a building at Christ’s College, an observatory had been built with the aid of a bequest, at West Melton, called the Joyce Memorial Observatory. This second observatory was suitable for the photo tracking of satellites, said Mr Heath. Calibration of its equipment had been completed and a University of Canterbury student was ready to begin tracking from there.

“Normally our observations of satellites have varied between 15 to 40 a month,” Mr Heath said. “Last month, because of the good weather, 47 observations were made. Once West Melton comes into operation, of course, we shall do more.” .