This is my first successful capture of a KH-11 spy satellite.

I did not get images during the entire pass because the satellite was very difficult to keep centered without active guiding, even though the TLE was just a day old.

13. May 2024 
~19:59 - 20:01 UTC



Rev I:
Collage of the best images
The last image is brightened up to show details better.

The times are for first and last image in the animation, the range and altitude is for the first frame.
Original:
Satellite is flaring in the instrument section.
This is also visible in Rev. G at around 5 to 10 seconds into the video.
193 frames
Frame 107: 21:59:31.813
Frame 520: 21:59:50.683
501km (37°)

Rev. C:
10 frames
Frame 732: 22:00:00.192
Frame 884: 22:00:06.907
381km (53°)

Rev. D:
7 frames
Frame 951: 22:00:09.818
Frame 984: 22:00:11.340
364km (57°)

Rev. E:
12 frames
Frame 1319: 22:00:26.224
Frame 1432: 22:00:31.093
368km (55°)

Rev. F:
17 frames
Frame 1892: 22:00:52.138
Frame 2015: 22:00:57.532
456km (39.9 / 17.3)

Rev. G:
The view of the viewfinder camera is real time.
It shows how difficult it is to keep the sat centered in the main FOV.

Here are the FOV of the viewfinder and the main telescope compared:


Rev. H:
Animation with the pictures from Rev. I.


Rev. L:
Shows how the stabilization in AutoStakkert turns the image 90° sideways
The real orientation of the satellite is facing almost straight towards earth, while the stabilized image makes it look like it is facing at the horizon

Rev. M:
Animation with the correctly oriented images, shows that the satellite is maintaining an attitude that always looks "down", which is to be expected



Planetarium and Skychart of this pass created with HeavenSat with the satellite during Rev. D:



The images were manually sorted and rejected, so each animation consists of only the sharpest frames.
But none were sharpened or processed in any way other than animating them, stacking is not a good option with such few frames.
All .gifs are played at 15FPS.


Filter=Baader IR685
22FPS
Shutter=11.35ms
Gain=523 (10%)