Re: Intelsat 512 and Orion 3 flashes!

From: Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Date: Sun Aug 27 2000 - 16:02:55 PDT

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    Thanks very much to Björn Gimle for the following helpful information:
    
    > on Aug 27 Intelsat 512 flashes should END 06:50 UTC near the +6.3m
    > star HP 100524 at 20:23 -9:39
    
    I was able to find it (85-087A, 16101) again after failing the previous 
    two nights, and the last flash that I saw was at about 06:49:12 UTC.  
    This one is easy to see in binoculars, as long as one looks at the 
    right time!  (I wonder if it's flashing at midnight local time on the 
    USA west coast.)  Here's PPAS report beginning from the end of the 
    phase shift:
    
    85- 87 A 00-08-27 05:29:12   EC  348.8 0.3   9 38.76  mag +4.0->inv
    
    Its flash period has decreased by more than one second in 16 nights:
    
    85- 87 A 00-08-11 03:20:09   EC  680.8 0.3  17 40.05  mag +3.5->inv
    
    Orion 3 (25727, 99-024A) non-obs: After its series of astoundingly 
    bright flashes Friday night (local time), it did not do any such thing 
    last night (Saturday local)!  Using one-power to look for it for two 
    or three minutes along its predicted track, I did not see any sign of 
    it at all.  
    
    Tele-X (19919, 89-027A) again flashed brighter than +2 last night; the 
    flash for which I have a specific notation was at about 4:25:29 Aug 27 
    UTC -- near the end of the post-phase shift group of flashes.  This 
    one seems to flash at roughly the same time each night even though it's 
    moved farther west.
    
    Mike McCants found Unknown 90007 and Telstar 401 (22927, 93-077A) last 
    night.  The former was visible most of the time at about +12; the latter 
    flashed to about +8.5 roughly every 444 seconds (over seven minutes -- 
    handheld binocs not recommended!), but it did have faint secondary and 
    tertiary maxima every 111 seconds, which made it a little more 
    interesting.  Oh, Mike also found ETS-6/Kiku 6 (23230, 94-056A) easily 
    even though it was near apogee; I forgot to write down the magnitude, 
    but it was fairly bright for that range.
    
    Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA
    
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