Flashing satellite
R.B. Minton (rbminton@sembilan.UCHSC.edu)
Tue, 27 Aug 1996 07:42:21 -0600
Hi Bart: I never heard whether or not you wanted my observations of a flashing
satellite so I will post this for general Seesat-L consumption. Does anyone
know what satellite this was based on flash interval, time, & position?
Video observations of Perseid meteors captured this satellite on 8-12-96 UT at
the following UT times: (local time was midnight +24 minutes)
06:23:59 F
06:24:20 fFf
06:24:40 FF
06:25:01 fF
The double & triple flashes were all about 1/3 sec. duration so the entire
flash sequence was over in about 1 sec. The first flash was very near a colon
in the time/date display and partially masked by it. The magnitude ranged from
about 7 for f and about 5 for F. It was invisible at other times. Limiting
magnitude is about 9.
At 06:24:20, it was very near v2 Cass at RA 0h 55m, Dec +59. It was moving from
N to S at about 6 deg/min.
Incidentally, I only captured 27 meteors in 5 hours of videotaping - down by a
factor of 5 (with the same equipment) from a few years ago. I also videotaped
5 satellites, 1 bird, and 0 UFO's.
R. B. Minton
Colorado State Director of Investigations
Mutual UFO Network (MUFON)