BVRI photometric observations and light-curve analysis of GEO objects

Abstract

BVRI photometric observations of Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) objects were conducted with the 1.5m Cassini Telescope located in Loiano, Italy. The observatory is operated by the INAF (National Institute for Astrophysics) Astronomical Observatory of Bologna, Italy. The Ritchey–Chrétien optical system is equipped with the BFOSC (Bologna Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera), a multipurpose instrument for imaging and spectroscopy, with an EEV CCD (1340×1300 pixel).This paper deals with the results of the photometric observations of several targets from the SSN (Space Surveillance Network) catalog that were acquired in May and December 2013.In particular:•1 piece of debris from Ekran: SSN 29014•1 piece of debris from LES 8: SSN 13753•5 SL-12 rocket bodies: SSN 38104, 17125, 20926, 17705 and 27444•2 IUS rocket bodies: SSN 19913, 21641•3 operational GEO satellite: SSN 34810, 27509, 28912•1 non-operational GEO satellites: SSN 02653Observations of Landolt standard fields were performed for calibration purposes. In addition, long exposures with sidereal tracking with no filter have been taken where the object image is trailed to study the brightness variability over timescales of a second. This paper describes the results of the code developed in order to detect the primary frequencies of the object’s brightness variation.