88- 1 B (Cosmos 1908 RB)

Jim Varney (jvarney@mail2.quiknet.com)
Tue, 9 Apr 1996 22:14:41 -0700

Kurt Jonckheere wrote in the Acceleration Report for April 9:

>The following objects had a jump in Mean Motion and * MIGHT * accelerate:
>14760 = 84- 19 B   88-  1 B = 18749(added today!)
>19922 = 89- 28 B   91- 81 B = 21797
>-----------------------------------
>All these objects need to be observed as soon as possible.

Only one hour after I read this message, 88- 1 B made a very good pass
over my location.  Is that soon enough? :)

It was steady.  I followed it from Polaris all the way to well under Leo
and it was steady the whole way.  It was equal to eta Leo in
brightness, mag 3.5.  In PPAS format:

88-  1 B 96-04-10 04:20      JEV                     S, obs after MM decr

It's a little disappointing that there was no observable change.  Question
for the TLE experts: could the decrease in mean motion and the negative
b-star drag term result from an adjustment by USSPACECOM to better fit
new observations and there was no actual physical change in the orbit?

To Kurt for the time and effort you spend on generating the Acceleration 
Reports: Thank You, It's Appreciated!

All the best,

Jim

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Jim Varney      |  121^ 23' 54" W,  38^ 27' 28" N   |           Sacramento, CA
Civil Engineer  |            Elev. 31 ft.           |jvarney@mail2.quiknet.com
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