Hello All, On 2000 April 5 at approximately 05:25 UTC (April 4, 23:25 local) +/- 5 minutes, I observed a relatively bright satellite (comparable to Capella, perhaps +0.5 Vmag) just east of Auriga, or about 330 deg. azimuth, 40 deg. elevation, and travelling north. It exhibited no fluctuations in magnitude. The end of the visible track occurred at 340 deg. azimuth, 15 deg. elevation. (Allow +/- 5 degrees on positions.) It was surprising to see at that time of night so bright a satellite at such an elevation. It may have been visible for quite some time before I observed it; however, I had only been looking skyward for a few seconds prior. Also, its apparent motion was almost imperceptible at first. In fact, when I first noticed it, I attributed what I thought was its movement to an optical illusion. I haven't yet schooled myself in orbital mechanics, but I'm fairly certain that it was not a LEO sat, given its visibility at that hour and elevation. I'm guessing it is in an elliptical orbit and was at or near its perigee (due to brightness), yet at such an altitude that it remained sunlit. Although, the relatively slow movement would seem to contradict a perigee orientation. Thanks to anyone who can identify this satellite and confirm or refute my supposition of orbital geometry. Robert Rodriguez Jr. 40.271 N, 103.8302 W, 1310 m P.S. I apologize for the less-than-precise time and position measurements. I had just stepped outside to feed my cat before retiring to bed, and thus my NIST-synchronized watch was elsewhere gauging the flow of time. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Apr 05 2000 - 00:53:43 PDT