The past 4 days have been extremely productive, as CASTOR detected another 59 satellites to add to its ever-growing catalogue. I took advantage of the amazing clear skies in this part of the world to catch them.

One of the satellites detected this week was the now tumbling Hipparcos satellite, which once revolutionized trigonometric parallax measurements for stars. It is now in the ever-growing satellite graveyard, forever doomed to tumble in space.

As a sign that the end is near for its survey, CASTOR cannot detect any further geosynchronous satellites without relocating to the other side of the world. Still, it has detected over 600 of the 1,000 total geosynchronous satellites currently in orbit, which is not bad for just one detector.

To date, CASTOR has detected 2,759 satellites from all orbit types since January 1, 2007. Since the IYA began, it has detected 706 new satellites, nearly 3/4 of the 1,000 satellite goal set on January 1, 2009.

The end of the long journey is near. I expect to finish by November 2009.