Re: unexpected flasher
Kurt Jonckheere (kjon@mail.dma.be)
Tue, 01 Dec 98 21:33:36 PST
Ed Light wrote:
> Last night (Sunday 22 Nov 1998) we noted an unexpected slow moving fla=
shing
> object. (We never saw 25413 after all). No serious attempt was made to
> time it, but the flashes seemed about 3-4 seconds apart and at brightes=
t
> the object resembled 4.9 magnitude chi Aqr (at minimum it was invisible
> in 7x50 and 10x50 binoculars).
> Later research identified the object as 10779 =3D 78-035B (Intelsat 4A6=
Atlas
> Centaur R/B). The VERY CRUDE observation, in standard format, would be =
...
I observed this one about one year ago with a period of about 4.5 seconds=
,
at that time, each second maximum consisted of two sharp flashes just aft=
er
each other. The magnitude was about +9 at a distance of 35 000 km.
Most of the time these Atlas Centaurs are easily observable with a small =
telescope
and often around mag +8. Because they move so slow it is very easy to =
make
a long observation and to determine the period rather accurate.
On the VSOHP you can follow a link to "Atlas Centaur" to find out more
about these objects.
'recent' observations by Jan Vansteelandt, Kurt Jonckheere and Jason Hatt=
on :
78- 35 B 97-12-28 23:19 JVS 80.8 0.2 18 4.49
78- 35 B 97-12-28 23:21:32.8 KJ 870.1 0.2 194 4.485 each 2nd max double
78- 35 B 98-05-07 20:20:38 JPH 233.8 0.2 52 4.495 F'F' mag+9->inv vm
> Cospar Date time UT ob total acc #of flash remarks
> ID YY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.s se time fls period
> 78-035 B 98-11-22 22:55:44 ?? 14 2 4 3.5 +-.5 peak mag =
+5
>
> I don't know what to put in the "obse" column (presumably some sort of
> observer identifier). The observation was made at:
"obse" is indeed the initials of the observer in our database PPAS,
your initials are "EL".
I added them to the PPAS update I'm preparing right now.
If some of you still have observations of flashers that haven't
found their way to SeeSat-L or the observations address
(which is ppas@lists.satellite.eu.org), please send them
as soon as possible ! Don't forget to include the UT-date.
regards,
Kurt Jonckheere, observations collector.