[Laser] Instrument coming on Line, Looking for Challenges

[Patrick Barthelow]

Folks:
 
For some time now, I have been working on acquiring an old USAF tracking station that is being decomissioned by the USAF, and have been working to acquire and reuse  the instrument, for Science, Education, outreach, and yes, continued DOD studies.
 
The Observatory, with an ultra quality  36" RC telescope, and 4 additional large refractor optical systems, is at 4000' and will be remote controlled.  I recently read of an applied  technology application that uses lasers to precisely track or characterize space debris, a topic getting a lot of recent press attention.  The instrument mount, a couple of years ago was run through a proof of performance test of its pointing, and tracking capabilities, and came out with an outstanding rating.   I am looking for missions that are suitable for the instrument and wonder if any among this group do professional work using lasers pointed skyward.  
 
I want to know more about that pursuit to see or find ideal Killer applications for this instrument, perhaps both amateur and  professional.  The instrument has plenty of mounting space and carrying capacity for laser emitters, and can be repeatedly pointed to a directed position in the sky to an accuracy approaching 1" of arc. I can send photos, or you can find a photo album of the site and instrument on my facebook page.
It's slew rates are extremely fast for such a precision optical instrument,  about 15 degrees per second azimuth and maybe half that in elevation. It can also be programmed to track nearly any object with TLE, or any custom modeled trajectory coordinates.  It can also be manually steered to a seen object with extreme precision, using a joystick, and/or  closed loop video information.   The operators used to practice their tracking skills  using manual joysticks with the optics trained on 747s passing overhead, at 35,000 feet.    No problem to lock the crosshairs onto, say, the number two engine nacelle, 6" x 10"  rear hydraulic fluid access hatch, while coming by at 550kts at 7 miles up.
 
In interesting amateur applications, this instrument could optically see and lock onto any of the various Oscar Satellites, (maybe even cubesats) and train a laser on them for any desired laser communications experiments.   The telescope can see stars and satellites even in broad daylight.... Depending on scheduling demand, I plan to allocate on a not to interfere basis, operational time to amateur pursuits.
 
Contact me off line, if you are familiar with optical pointing laser tracking applications, and see opportunities to keep this instrument busy.

Best Regards,   
73, de Pat Barthelow AA6EG  
        
      MOONBOUNCE                                 YURI'S NIGHT