ETS Flash Obs April 26,28

Tony Beresford (starman@camtech.net.au)
Thu, 29 Apr 1999 14:38:06 +0930

Flashes were observed from Adelaide So. Australia from
ETS-6 from 10:51:30 till 10:58:32 UT on april 26.
Average 9 sets of 10 flashes gives an average time for
10 flashes of 130.50 secs with a standard deviation of 0.08
seconds. Thus the Sd of the mean was .025 seconds and
the flash period 13.050 + or - .003.
max brightness was about +2. The main flash was accompanied
by a secondary flash 3.7 seconds later of intially mag 6.
ETS-6 exhibited the same phenomena as reported for Superbird A,
in that this secondary flash became the primary flash at the end of
the flashing section as the flashes faded beyond the limit of my
hand-held 7x50 binoculars. The swap over was at about 10:56:34 .
The shortness of the interval can be attributed to the fact that the
observations were of a part of the satellite orbit near perigee.

On April 28, I averaged 17 sets of 20 flashes, between 15:02 and 15:11UT,
 to get a time of 260.38 seconds for 20 flashes , with a standard 
deviation of 0.08 seconds, thus the FP was 13.019 seconds + or - 0.001
The observing interval was after the "swap over". Maximum brightness
was mag 3.5
Tony Beresford
(34.9638S,138.6333E,100m)