Lacrosse 2 Rk (91-17B, #21148) running late

Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Tue, 30 Dec 1997 16:52:59 -0600

(I hope the following two observations will be useful, even though 
unfortunately I ended up with uncertainties on both!)  

Using these elements:

Lacrosse 2 Rk
1 21148U 91017B   97347.25322987  .00022500  00000-0  32388-3 0    01
2 21148  67.9780  43.0088 0067000 183.4440 176.5560 15.53105488    05

on 27 Dec 1997 UTC I observed Lacrosse 2 Rk to pass a few degrees from 
the Pleiades either one or two minutes later than predicted.  (I can't 
read what I wrote; it was either 00:55:45 or 00:56:45.)  

On 29 Dec 1997 at either 00:50:35 UTC (what I *thought* I had written) 
or 00:52:35 (what I actually wrote), it passed within a small fraction 
of a degree of Polaris (alpha UMa, observed in 10x50 binoculars).  
These two times would make it about one or three minutes late.

Both nights, at the time of the observation and *before* reading what 
I had written down, I thought it was about two minutes late.  After 
looking at my notations, I was just puzzled -- except that it was at 
least *one* minute late both nights.  It was steady and about mag. +1.0 
to +1.5 both nights, and no others that bright were predicted around 
the time of the observations.

Observing location was San Antonio, Texas -- 29.40N, 98.64W, 180m.

Ed Cannon
ecannon@mail.utexas.edu
Austin, Texas, USA