ON THE POSSIBILITY OF NOCTURNAL OPTICAL OBSERVATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES
Abstract
The intalltion of cataphotes on artificial satellites is tudied. Cataphotes are optical systems which have the property of returning the light incident upon them back to the source from which the light ame. By illuminating the satellte wth a powerful searchight it is possible, under certain conditions, to see the star-shaped speck of light formed by the cataphote. The observer, however, must be stationed close to the searchlight, and this necessitates observing the light speck against the bright background of the searchlight beam. On the asis of recenly pulished data, calclations have been made of the brightness of the bckground formed by the searchlight beam under various observational conditions, and the corresponding limiting tellar magnitudes for a luminous point which is tll viible against this background have been determined. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 17, 1962
- Accession Number
- AD0287686
Entities
People
- G.g. Lengauer
Organizations
- National Air and Space Intelligence Center