Orwell Astronomical Society (Ipswich)
Falcon Launch Vehicle Of The Hera Probe, 08 October 2024
On 07 October 2024, ESA's Hera mission was launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA. The mission will investigate the asteroid Didymos, to study the effect of NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission in September 2022, which was intended to change the trajectory of the body.
The prospects were slim of imaging Hera on the first night following launch. It rained overnight, gradually clearing towards dawn. At 4.00am I awoke and was surprised to find a clear sky. The air was very humid, so much so that the dew heater on my camera took an age to clear condensation on the lens window and I had to employ a hairdryer to remove condensation on the inside of the telescope corrector plate. Once the equipment had been dried, I started collecting images... and then it clouded over again! However, the clouds were fast moving so I persevered and, eventually, the sky cleared.
I took more images. As I checked them, I suddenly became aware of two problems: the telescope was incorrectly aligned, approximately 1° off target, and dawn was fast approaching. I adjusted the position of the telescope to collect a few images before the sky brightened too much.
I collected 12 images pointed on Hera. They showed only one moving object, flashing with a period of 2-3 minutes, its brightness changing from magnitude 15 to invisibility. This was almost certainly the Falcon carrier rocket, not Hera. The latter was nearby but too faint to be seen.
Nigel Evans