Blinking satellite
Allen Thomson (thomsona@netcom.com)
Tue, 13 Aug 1996 12:05:56 -0700
Larry Klaes <larryk@ns.village.com> forwarded:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 18:37:55 -0400
>From: Eric M. Bram <gradivus@dreamscape.com>
>To: astro@store-forward.mindspring.com
>Subject: Re: Did Anyone Else See This ?
>Harry Taylor wrote:
[snip]
>I saw something interesting once, and supposed it was some sort of
>satellite, but never figured out what. Gazing upward from Big Bend park
>in Texas one night in later December 1978 I saw a star-like white light
>flash on and off about 5 times in rapid succession in about 1 second --
>like five white "dits", about the brightness of a 3'rd or 4'th magnitude
>star. Then about a minute later another 5 flashes about 30 degrees to the
>south of that, then another minute later yet another 5 flashes, a further
>30 degrees or so to the south.
[more snip]
This is just top-of-the-head, but Soviet/Russian LEO geodetic satellites
(currently called GEO-IK or Musson) had/have xenon strobes to help precisely
determine their position on the sky. The flash pattern is said to be
strings of nine at a p.r.f. of only 1/3 Hz, but I suppose it might have been
different on earlier models.
Reference: Europe & Asia in Space 1993-1994, by N.L. Johnson and D. M.
Rodvold; Kaman Sciences Corporation, 1500 Garden of the Gods Rd, Colorado
Springs, CO, USA 80907, pp. 191-192