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Tiny Kirtland Telescope Took Critical Shot of Shuttle
Albuquerque Journal
| Thursday, February 13, 2003
| John Fleck
Posted on 02/13/2003 5:57:41 PM PST by woofie
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE It was a lark for Rick Cleis and his buddies, the sort of technical challenge the Air Force satellite trackers thrive on.
Could they snap a picture of the space shuttle Columbia as it streaked above Albuquerque on its return to Earth on Feb. 1?
NASA didn't ask for the picture. The researchers just thought it would be fun.
Rigging up a small home telescope, a decades-old satellite-tracking mirror array and an ancient Macintosh computer, they succeeded historically.
As dawn broke, Columbia appeared above high western clouds, right where the NASA flight track said it would be, and they snapped a single grainy picture.
That ghostly image, released last week by NASA, is the last close-up image before Columbia broke up in the skies above Texas, killing the seven astronauts aboard. Some observers suggest it shows damage to Columbia's troubled left wing. NASA is not so sure.
"It's not clear to me that it reveals anything significant at this point," said shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore during a news briefing last week.
After almost two weeks of official silence, Air Force and NASA officials Wednesday allowed the team that snapped the picture to talk about how they did it.
Cleis, Robert Johnson and Roger Petty work at the Air Force's Starfire Optical Range, using telescopes to track and study satellites in orbit.
That led to speculation that the picture had been taken with the Air Force's most powerful satellite-tracking telescope. In interviews Wednesday, they tried to set the record straight.
It was just some guys cobbling together cheap old gear for fun, they said.
The shuttle's orbit only rarely carries it over Albuquerque, and the Starfire team doesn't often get the chance to track objects re-entering Earth's atmosphere, said Johnson, an Air Force major.
They got the data they needed from NASA to track the shuttle as it passed, but they were too busy with their regular work to get started setting up for the attempt until the night before.
"We literally started that Friday evening," Cleis said.
Johnson worked until 10 p.m., aligning a little old Questar telescope they pulled out of a closet for the task. Cleis whose colleagues call him "the telescope wizard" stayed up all night writing the software to track the descending shuttle.
They have some of the most powerful telescopes available for the job, including a behemoth with a mirrored lens more than 11 feet in diameter. But for their Feb. 1 attempt, they chose the smallest telescope in their arsenal. It was the easiest to set up for the unique job of tracking the fast-moving shuttle, flying far lower than their usual targets, they said.
The Questar is small, even by the standards of backyard astronomy. Its lens is just 3-1/2 inches in diameter.
They mounted it in front of a set of larger movable satellite-tracking mirrors that had been salvaged from White Sands Missile Range two decades ago.
Old but still reliable, the mirrors tracked the shuttle, reflecting its image back to an instrument room where the telescope was mounted.
From the time Columbia emerged from clouds in the west until they lost it because of clouds in the east, the shuttle was only visible for 24 seconds, according to Robert Fugate, Starfire's chief scientist.
That was only enough time to snap one picture. The shuttle was 36 degrees above the western horizon, nearly 70 miles away at the time.
It was not long before they got a telephone call in the control room from a family member, telling them that the shuttle had broken up.
They immediately grasped the significance, and made backup copies of the computerized image.
"We said, 'We'd better start backing this up, somebody's going to want to see this,' '' Johnson said.
The image was turned over to NASA, which is still analyzing it as part of its investigation.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; US: New Mexico
KEYWORDS: newmexico; telescope
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1
posted on
02/13/2003 5:57:41 PM PST
by
woofie
To: woofie
If these guys could do this with an 11 year old Mac and a 3.5 inch telescope and software dreamed up in a few hours over beer, it makes me wonder why NASA hasn't done this as part of its standard procedure with higher resolution equipment.
2
posted on
02/13/2003 6:04:52 PM PST
by
Arkinsaw
To: Arkinsaw
The pics were in the paper but not on line but..the telescope looked like it came from radio shack
3
posted on
02/13/2003 6:07:11 PM PST
by
woofie
To: woofie
"We literally started that Friday evening," Cleis said.
Johnson worked until 10 p.m., aligning a little old Questar telescope they pulled out
of a closet for the task. Cleis whose colleagues call him "the telescope wizard"
stayed up all night writing the software to track the descending shuttle.
What an interesting story of two cultures.
First, this team of some guys, exploiting the wonderful freedom this country affords
it's citizens to just...do what they want to do.
And then the bureacratic part of NASA/The Guvmint that had grown lazy/complacent enough
to not be tracking the reentry of the Shuttle with the best equipment on every return.
I say hurray for this small band who may have gotten pivotal information...just as a
fun exercise with their brains and some lower-grade equipment...
4
posted on
02/13/2003 6:07:26 PM PST
by
VOA
To: VOA
NASA didn't ask for the picture. The researchers just thought it would be fun. Behold, the power of Geeks....gotta love this country.
To: Arkinsaw
it makes me wonder why NASA hasn't done this as part of its standard procedure
with higher resolution equipment.
I don't even want to think the reason is that NASA just didn't want
any good evidence if an accident did occur...
But in a constructive spirit, I'd say...if the investigation shows a real
stupid cock-up by NASA caused this tragedy...at least a few of the ones responsible need
to be booted overboard...and the guys who took the photo should at least
be put on the NASA payroll as consultants!
6
posted on
02/13/2003 6:10:30 PM PST
by
VOA
To: WilliamWallace1999
Behold, the power of Geeks....gotta love this country.
Amen to that!
And thank goodness so many of them are drawn to this country...even if they do (in the present)
depress wages for some of us native-born geeks.
My general thought is that in the long-run, we get it all back...and more...
in terms of how this country is generally a case of a "rising tide that lifts
all boats".
(unless a person is a Democrat into victimology...or has the true bad luck
to be in the wrong sector at the wrong time...it does happen)
7
posted on
02/13/2003 6:14:53 PM PST
by
VOA
To: VOA
Just imagine what can be done in the realm of defense and weaponry in our home garages and basements. Foriegn enemies should beware ever attacking this country. Anti-gravity any-one...watch it will come out some-body's garage. Anti-gun folks should really fear the next generation of self protection devices, there's no law against portable laser and particle beam weapons...guess what, somebody in a garage will invent one.
8
posted on
02/13/2003 6:23:20 PM PST
by
mdmathis6
To: woofie
Shouldn't the SOP be for the shuttle to fly over one of the real satellite tracking telescopes each flight, and do an 8-point roll?
9
posted on
02/13/2003 6:53:30 PM PST
by
omega4412
To: Arkinsaw
Maybe NASA should hire these guys, or they at least ought to be on an episode of "Junk Yard Wars"
10
posted on
02/13/2003 6:56:32 PM PST
by
Husker24
To: mdmathis6
If they could slap a lazer on this thing and link that computer up to Space Command, you have a missile defence system. That Shuttle was moving at 12,500 mph.
11
posted on
02/13/2003 6:59:21 PM PST
by
Husker24
To: Arkinsaw
More importantly, why aren't these guys working on missile defense? Tracking a high-speed re-entry is just what you'd want to do to shoot down an enemy warhead.
To: coloradan
Here's the story about the telescope used in Albuquerque.
13
posted on
02/13/2003 7:23:18 PM PST
by
CedarDave
(A burger please, hold the FRENCH fries)
To: woofie
After almost two weeks of official silence, Air Force and NASA officials Wednesday allowed the team that snapped the picture to talk about how they did it. The picture was released just a day or two after the disaster. Why did the Air Force put a gag on the story that lasted 11 days? Did the photographers violate some DOD directive that prohibited them from taking the picture using government equipment??
14
posted on
02/13/2003 7:28:34 PM PST
by
CedarDave
(A burger please, hold the FRENCH fries)
To: mdmathis6
Anti-gun folks should really fear the next generation of self protection devices, there's no law against portable laser and particle beam weapons...guess what, somebody in a garage will invent one.There are already laws regarding use of eye-hazardous lasers where people can access the beams. For example, outdoor laser shows that put beams up into the sky have to look out for aircraft and turn off the beams when one gets anywhere near, and you certainly can't aim those beams near where people are. (And, if a laser is a life threat, it most certainly is an eye hazard, even if the beam is invisible.)
But don't worry, the gun haters will go for banning assault lasers some day anyway, even if none has ever been used in a crime - look to the efforts to ban the .50 BMG as evidence.
To: CedarDave
Thanks for the bump. Among amateur telescopes, Questars are just about the best of them all, for any given aperture.
To: woofie; TLBSHOW; aristeides; MrConfettiMan; DoughtyOne; Joe Hadenuf; Dog
It was just some guys cobbling together cheap old gear for fun, they said. That's a nice cover story. Most folks will fall for it.
To: Fred Mertz
It is unreal that they think we are fools!
18
posted on
02/13/2003 8:00:28 PM PST
by
TLBSHOW
(God Speed as Angels trending upward dare to fly Tribute to the Risk Takers)
To: coloradan
Among amateur telescopes, Questars are just about the best of them all, for any given aperture. I would debate that. Here is a lunar shot taken with a Meade, LX200 10" from my backyard. I took this two years ago, and could do much better now. Of course Questar is a good scope too, no doubt.
To: Joe Hadenuf
Nice moon shot.
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