I awoke to a clear sky and Peter Wakelin's report of 77044A somewhat off-track relative 2 month old elements, so I decided to have a look. I took advantage of Peter's observation to produce a preliminary orbit, which enabled me to obtain one accurate position. In the course of my analysis, I discovered that Alberto Rango's observation of 2005 June 17 UTC was about 1.3 deg off in cross-track, probably a result of reducing the wrong star(s). The latest elset available to Peter had been fit to that observation, which most likely accounts for the large prediction error. I was unable to find the actual reference stars that Alberto used. This orbit should be pretty accurate; however, it was fit to a long period, during which drag was greater than it is now, so the object likely will run slightly late relative to it: DMSP B5D1-2 6.4 1.7 0.0 6.5 v 31.6 1 10033U 77044A 05227.33733299 .00000103 00000-0 41204-4 0 06 2 10033 99.1012 188.6521 0041128 253.7550 105.9103 14.27887149 05 Arc 2005 Apr 27.14 - Aug 15.37, WRMS residuals = 0.014 deg While waiting for 77044A, I spotted a distant flasher, which turned out to be Gorizont 14 (87040A / 17969), an inactive communications satellite, about 700 km above the geosynch altitude. Gorizont 14 flashed to magnitude 6 with a period just under 45 s. Except for these brief flashes, it was invisible in 11x80 binoculars. I tracked it through 94 flashes, of which I timed nearly 60 percent. I can produce the UTC time of each timed flash, if anyone desires the data. Please specify preferred format. 17969 87 040A 2701 G 20050815084333580 17 25 0050850-095407 48 H+060 10 044870 10033 77 044A 2701 G 20050815084624580 17 25 0046899-110957 18 R 17969 87 040A 2701 G 20050815085401780 17 25 0100923-091655 97 H+060 10 044890 17969 87 040A 2701 G 20050815090515230 17 25 0111041-084258 48 H+060 10 044880 IOD format: http://www.satobs.org/position/IODformat.html 87- 40 A 05-08-15 08:54:01.8 TJM 673.1 0.2 15 44.87 +6.0->inv 87- 40 A 05-08-15 09:03:00.6 TJM 583.8 0.2 12 44.90 +6.0->inv 87- 40 A 05-08-15 09:18:43.1 TJM 942.5 0.2 21 44.88 +6.0->inv 87- 40 A 05-08-15 09:35:11.0 TJM 987.9 0.2 22 44.90 +6.0->inv 87- 40 A 05-08-15 09:52:23.6 TJM 987.9 0.2 22 44.90 +6.0->inv PPAS format: http://www.satobs.org/tumble/flashpm.html#PPASformat Site 2701: 43.68764 N, 79.39243 W, 230 m Ted Molczan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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