Observation Details. Object observed 22 April 0318GMT 21 April 2218 Local GMT -5 45.0472 -93.3663 A friend of mine (Dave) and I were out last evening to take a look at Iridium 914(t) and saw something that was either a very slow meteor (probable) or a decay We first noticed the object either due North, or just to the west of North. We were in the process of "What is that?" before I figured that we should get a time. I ran into the house and yelled at Dave to start counting. He started "one thousand one, one thousand two etc" I checked my computer time, synched up earlier in the evening. The time was 22:18:22. Dave made his count to 26, so I estimate that this object was visible for 30 seconds or more. The object was in fact observable at the time mentioned, and probably for at least 20 seconds after my time check. The track took it to the NNW, somewhat faster than I have seen any LEO before, but much slower than any meteors I have observed. (I have never seen a fireball). The color was pinkish-orange, the brightness was difficult to estimate, but not bright enough to attract attention if you were not looking up. This appeared to be an "area" target for me, not just one point of light. Dave states that he is sure he saw more than one object traveling in formation together. (he states 5-6 objects together) I assume, something had broken up. Difficult for me to remember the elevation of the object when we first noticed it. I would say that it was 15 degrees higher and just to the right of Polaris when we noticed. (very excited then, did not take time for more accurate checks) I did a quick check on possible decaying objects this morning and came up blank. Later on, coming into work I checked again and noticed that the alldat.tle file that I had was not up to date. I downloaded a new copy, and ran this through satevo for "a quick check". I then decided to further break it down by only checking on retrograde objects. I found a couple of debris objects that come close to fitting a track, but do not know if any were that close to decay and fit a track. Satevo didn't think so. Any thoughts or input? Regards, Daniel Crawford ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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