cubesat FITSAT-1

[eeprommemory]

flashing satellite launched from ISS you have less than 100 days to see it before it burns up.



other sats launched and frequency's being transmitted and how it was done.


i am going to try get a photo!.

[superhet]

Have you spotted it yet? Ive been listening in to microsats for a while now. Appart from ISS, this will be the first one visable with the naked eye.

Thanks for this...

EDIT...

Not sure if they have turned the LEDs on yet. 200W worth.... Hmmm. Telemetry data comming through.

[superhet]

Had a nice pass here last night. Got my camera out but unfortunately I didnt see much. According to the above link....

"20121025: Flashing LED may be good for Christmas Eve."

I dont know if this means they will be turning the LEDs on at Christmas or they are simply making a statement that Green and Red LEDs will be festive?... Either way, im keeping my eye on this one.

[Tasman]

Hi. Could we see this in Tassie and if so where do we look and at what times. Thanks.

[superhet]

Probably best if you download a satellite tracking program so you can bang in your location and find your passes for FITSAT-1. I use a program called Orbitron which is a great bit of kit. Simply download the latest TLE's, load the cubesat TLE, select FITSAT, and you can see its current position. Above the little clock, click on the RT (real time) to change it to SIM (simulate) and scroll to when the pass goes over top of you. Tonight, there is a pass at about 10.30pm AEDST but by the time anyone reads this, its probably too late.... so download the program and check it out for yourself.

There is also a website for tracking satellites called n2yo.com that will calculate visable pass times for you but I cant seem to find this particular cubesat, but if your interested in spotting visable satellites, you can find out the visable passes for the ISS as it is the easiest to see with the naked eye. Best viewed just before sunrise and just after sunset as the sun is hitting the spacecraft and not the atomsphere.

[superhet]

UPDATE... They have turned on the LEDs!, however no schedule for us just yet. Im sending a message to request activation of LEDs for a visable pass for Australia. Will keep you posted if I get a reply... An update of the project status below...



Piccy of a pass from Tsuyoshi Watanabe of a 10Hz pulse. Man, I wana see this....



I really hope they give us a chance to see this down here.

Mike.

[superhet]

Heads up.... Literally... We have confirmation (schedule may change...) that we will have a pass comming up very soon for the east coast. For those that are interested, have a look as the official website (as per the link in the above post).

----------------------------------- News ---------------------------------------
20121215:
Flashing plan:
18 Dec. 05:48:00 - 05:50:00 (UTC) SE South America (Morse, Red)
19 Dec. 04:47:00 - 04:49:00 (UTC) Equator of South America (Morse, Green)
19 Dec. 1800 - 18:37:00 (UTC) Middle India (Morse, Green)
20 Dec. 16:21:00 - 16:25:00 (UTC) SE Australia (Morse, Red)
Schedule may be changed.

Sorry for hijacking your thread eeprommemory... but I figured you would forgive me...

Mike

UPDATE:

I had an email response and it looks like we are a go for the 20th. Just hope the weather holds up... Looks like a great pass. Straight over my head but should be visable for most people on the east coast.

[eeprommemory]

this site has updates and some info for those that did not find it and also schematics for a 5.8ghz LNB. also noticed the sat is slowly rotating it made the decoding of the CW real hard on 437.250mhz. also i am a bit disappointed after reading this info. NIWAKA will carry a mounted neodymium magnet to force it to always point to magnetic north like a compass. When NIWAKA rises above the horizon, it will be to the south of the Fukuoka ground station, and both the 5.84GHz antenna and the LEDs will be aimed accurately enough by the magnet aligning itself and the satellite with the earth's magnetic field that the Fukuoka ground station will be within the main beams.