While looking for Cosmos 2217 last night, I was startled by very bright flashes from an object that I later identified as Molniya 3-42. The flashes were magnitude 2 or 3 with a period of 7.5 seconds as seen in a 12x80 finder scope. The Molniya was about magnitude 10.5 between flashes in a 20cm telescope. About 3:31, both objects were in the same field of view about 1/2 degree apart as the Cosmos (magnitude 9-10 varying slowly) overtook the Molniya. Molniya 3-42 1 22178U 92067A 04218.72890936 .00000000 00000-0 10000-3 0 8402 2 22178 63.8335 103.3614 7165971 255.0449 21.8438 2.00617076 86530 Cosmos 2217 1 22189U 92069A 04218.76720166 .00000051 00000-0 00000+0 0 242 2 22189 66.9918 102.2035 6704475 233.3214 44.9342 2.00974483 86420 Lat 30.314 N Long 97.866 W 2004 Aug 13 Times are UT 22178 Molniya 3-42 92 67A 19 M 4.5 Mag Hrs Min Alt Azi Hgt Range R A Dec 9.8 3 30 76 242 5795 5862 17 31.5 23.1 9.5 3 35 71 215 5069 5187 17 45.5 14.4 22189 Cosmos 2217 92 69A 17 M 4.5 Mag Hrs Min Alt Azi Hgt Range R A Dec 9.1 3 30 76 244 4376 4437 17 29.7 23.5 8.7 3 35 67 204 3737 3895 17 51.1 8.8 Mike McCants Austin, TX ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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