Possible use of the 'Pi of the Sky' system in a space situational awareness program
2009
The "Pi of the Sky" system was initially created for searching of optical partners of gamma ray bursts [5,7]. The system
is located in Chile and consists of two CCD cameras on a common mounting base [1]. Currently, it performs various
astronomical observations [1,5,7,8]. Among others, system also records passages of satellites and fragments of Earth's
artificial satellites, so called "space debris". Since now, this kind of data was identify as a disturbing transient signal and
team members usually focus on identify and eliminating it. Handle of this problem is especially important, because
software algorithm which search for optical companion of gamma ray bursts focus on transient phenomena events.
On the other hand, comparison of the "Pi of the Sky" system parameters with different facilities which are used for
space debris searching and monitoring shows, that its properties are similar to some of those systems. It means, that it
should be possible, to obtain valuable data of artificial satellites motion analyzing "Pi of the Sky" data. Moreover,
expected in the near future system upgraded to 6 small telescopes equipped totally with 24 CCD detectors system [1]
will cover a major part of the sky (field of view of each detector equals 20 x 20 degrees) which gives possibility of
visual measurements objects up to 16 magnitude. It will be an unusual advantage in the field of system categories with
that size. In the paper, we would like to shortly describe a space debris community activities, present properties of
selected systems which are using for space debris surveys and finally examples of observational data will be presented.
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