Superbird A and Chinasat 5 and TiPS, etc.

From: Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Date: Thu Apr 26 2001 - 02:32:34 PDT

  • Next message: Moritz Heger: "ISS US module computer problems"

    Superbird A (89-041A, 20040) continues to provide a series of 
    +5->inv flashes quite a while after the main flash episode.  
    Last night (April 26 UTC) I was able to watch many flashes 
    (22.8-second interval) from 3:43:25 to 3:58:15, and I do not 
    know when they began or ended.
    
    Chinasat 5 (84-049A, 14985) did some +4 flashes last night,
    but they were every other flash, thus about 4:51 between
    them.  I saw most of the in-between flashes also.  We saw a
    few flashes the previous evening also.
    
    Mike McCants put his telescope on TiPS (96-029F, 23937) the
    last two nights, and with his newer eyepiece it's quite a 
    view!  Wednesday UTC as I watched it for two or three minutes, 
    it displayed a very interesting alternation between flashes 
    of "Ralph" and "Norton" -- which must be multi-faceted 
    objects considering the way they were flashing.
    
    Thursday UTC I saw a Sirius-class (-1.5) flare low in the NNW, 
    and Shi Jian 5 (99-025B, 25731) seems to be a very good match.
    
    STS 100+ISS reached about +2 on a pass low in the west to SW.
    The previous evening Mike put his scope on it, and I was able
    to see two or three separate bright spots, but not much more.
    I need more practice!  I believe that he has told me that with 
    that eyepiece it's about 80-power.
    
    Intelsat 512 (85-087A, 16101) is back over the USA again, and
    if anyone sees it flashing, please post a report!  The period
    should be about 40 seconds, plus or minus.  Thanks.
    
    Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA
    
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
    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 : Thu Apr 26 2001 - 02:33:37 PDT