On May 4 , Lacrosse 5 carried out a manoeuvre to lift its orbit.Shortly afterwards as both rocket and satellite passed over the UK , the following images were obtained:

Firstly......the rocket body as seen at 2052 gmt

Followed at 2129 GMT by the satellite , somewhat dimmer.

Single frames , re-sized by 300% reveal the following......
But is this really our first view of Lacrosse 5 ?

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On the evening of January 22 2007 Lacrosse 5 made a 69 deg sunlit pass over the UK The animation below is made up of two frames captured at a magnification of about 500X
The images have been processed as follows:
Dark frame subtraction
Enlarged by a factor of 200%
Gamma adjustment

Last August I also imaged a 57 deg pass by Lacrosse 5.

The results have not been released until now.
Notice in the two frame animation below , from August 7 2006 , how
similar the two results are.....apart from the attitude of the spacecraft , which appears to be in an opposite pointing mode.
Range was 844KM ..........Pass time 2220GMT

Latest images of Lacrosse 5

On the evening of April 1 2007 Lacrosse 5 made a high elevation pass ( 83 degs 22:31:28 BST) through clear and stable skies
Transparency was good and I was lucky enough to be able to follow most of the pass through the telescope viewfinder.
At an elevation of about 65 degs the spacecraft increased suddenly in brightness , then disappeared for 20-30 seconds , before re-appearing , slightly dimmer.
At about 22:32:20 it entered shadow.

The animation below shows the satellite in approach (first two frames) then moving away ( final frame ) after coming back into view
Range to target approx 730km at closest point.

This is the first time I have managed to image the satellite before and after "disappearance" .
The final frames seem to confirm the complex structure of the spacecraft.......

The following composite image compares Lacrosse 5 with Saturn demonstrating just how difficult a target this satellite is , presenting an apparent size of just five arc seconds.

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Lacrosse 3

As predicted by Arnold Barmettler's "CalSky.com" a lunar transit by Lacrosse 3 took place over my home location on the evening of February 17 2005.

This image shows the predicted path of Lacrosse 3

And here , the orbital position of the satellite at the time of the transit

As can be seen from the composite image below , the actual track of the bird was slightly north of that predicted. A number of major lunar craters are tagged for reference.



Little is known about the actual size of USA 133 but it is thought to have a span of up to 45 meters.

For further background information see the Collect Space article about the NRO launches and the patch that gave the game away !

At a range of 836 km it presented a very small target.In addition it was in total shadow. A keen eye is needed to spot the satellite in the animation below as it shoots through the field of view!
Initially , concentrate on the area between the first and second circular marker.Once your eyes have adjusted it should be possible to see the object travel across the screen from right to left

22h21m06.01s USA 133/Lacrosse (25017 1997-64-A Crosses the disk of Moon. Separation: 0.038d Position Angle: 160.7d Angular Velocity: 28.6'/s. Transit duration: 1.02s Angular diameter: 4.6" cylindrical, 18.0m x 4.5m Satellite at az: 245.2d WSW h: 49.8d dist: 836.1 km (in shadow) Satellite apparently moves to direction 245.7° Centerline, Closest Point ?Map: Lon: 3d06m11s W Lat: +53d23m07s dist: 0.69 km az: 214.5d SW Path direction: 124.5d SE ground speed: 7.428 km/s width: 9.0 km max. duration: 1.0 s USA 133 Lacrosse 1 25017U 97064A 05046.80378526 0.00000230 00000-0 37017-4 0 05 2 25017 57.0110 355.8407 0007000 125.0106 234.9894 14.71191194 02 If you are having problems spotting Lacrosse 3 in the video above ..... have a look at this mini version.It covers the centre section of the transit and I have marked a white dot above each position.Simply look below the dot , mid frame , and you should be able to spot the spacecraft There has been much speculation about the size and shape of Lacrosse 3. Last year I imaged another radar platform , Japanese spysat IGS 1B. IGS although smaller is seen here at high magnification during a visible pass over the UK. From the image , I constructed a scale model to depict what it might look like.Note the radar array platform. The only images released by the NRO of Lacrosse suggest that the body of the spacecraft is much bigger , featuring a very large radar antenna.