The first Italian observatory for space debris observation
Cappelletti, Ms Chantal ; Murrali, Ms Lucrezia ; Paolillo, Fabrizio ; ...Porfilio, Manfredi ; et al.
Jan - 2007

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type: Conference Proceedings

Abstract
Since a few years GAUSS (Group of Astrodynamics of University of Rome “La Sapienza”) started optical observations of GEO and LEO space debris. All the observation campaigns were carried out exploiting the facilities of the Associazione Astronomica Frusinate which operates the Campo Catino and the Collepardo observatories. Moreover a joint campaign from Collepardo Observatory and Observatori Astronomic de Mallorca (Spain) was carried out. In October 2006 the Italian Space Agency, in the framework of a contract which involves many Italians groups working on space debris, gave to GAUSS the task to manufacture a small, easy to transport, observatory completely dedicated to space debris monitoring. The observatory will host two telescopes, with diameter of 40 cm and 55 cm, both of them equipped with CCDs and moved by robotic mounts. The 40 cm telescope is a Cassegrain-like configuration, modified to get a short focal length (focal ratio: f/1.2) thus permitting a wide field of view and a good stability on the mount which permits fast LEO objects tracking. The design of the optical tube, completely realized by students of GAUSS, is shown in the paper. The 55 cm telescope is a Newton (f/4), with corrected image circle for wide field of view. One CCD is equipped with a 4096x4096 pixels sensor, dimension of each pixel are 9x9 µm, (53 mm diagonal) and will be used for searching campaign; the second CCD hosts a 2184 x 1510 pixels sensor, dimensions of each pixel are 6.8x6.8 µm, it will be used for accurate astrometry measures. The robotic mounts permit full autonomous tracking mode and remote control. The dome also has been designed and manufactured by GAUSS and the design is deeply depicted in the paper, showing solutions adopted in order to achieve transportability and remote control. Whereas the observatory is completely autonomous a large amount of data can be achieved, therefore a lot of efforts have been directed to images processing automation, to screen all pictures separating catalogued targets from uncatalogued ones. The complete observatory design and preliminary observation results are described in the paper.

keywords : IAC-07-A6.1.05