L. Aardoom, D.L.F. van Loon and T.J. Poelstra

Delft, 1975. 26 pagina's.
ISBN-13: 978 90 6132 221 4. ISBN-10: 90 6132 221 9.

Summary

In 1966, following some years of preparation, the Delft Working Group for Satellite Geodesy started photographic observations of satellites. Since then the camera station of the Geodetic Institute of Delft University of Technology has continued participating in internationally coordinated geodetic satellite observation programmes. Contributions were made to the Western European Satellite Triangulation Programme (WEST), the National Geodetic Satellites Programme (NGSP), the International Satellite Geodesy Experiment (ISAGEX), and a Short Arc Observation Programme. Both optically passive and optically active satellites were observed. In 1969 the station was relocated, but still it remained in the vicinity of Delft until definitive re-establishment followed in 1973 at a more suitable site near Apeldoorn.

A previous publication dealt in particular with the equipment in use for photographic observation of station-to-satellite directions. The present publication concentrates on the formulas applied for the reduction of observations made with the Delft TA-120 camera in three of the four mentioned programmes. The curve fitting procedure to assess the quality of the observations is also described and finally results of observations and computations are given.

Contents

Summary  4

1. Introduction  5
2. Some technical details  5
3. Time reduction  7
4. Position reduction  8
5. Conversion to fixed-Earth reference  11
6. Quality assessment by means of curve-fitting  15
7. Results  17

References  20
Table I Observations from Wippolder-site  21
Table II Observations from Ypenburg-site  25