There was one even earlier version of one of those papers about Molniyas that had some discussion and empirical data about their optical magnitudes. It's from this paper (which I think was written in 1996): http://www.rmc.ca/academic/csr/public_html/links/molniya/reports/casi-01a.html > MOLNIYA OPTICAL MAGNITUDES > > It is difficult to quantify satellite optical magnitudes. > Radar cross-section data is available for most objects in > the satellite catalog, but an equivalent optical magnitude > database does not exist. In addition, apparent magnitude > for any given satellite at any given location is highly > variable, depending on solar aspect angle, viewing aspect > and seeing conditions. Based on actually observations made > by UVic, visual magnitudes were calculated for 12 Molniya > satellites observed near their apogee point at a slant > range of approximately 40,000 km (Table 2). Additional work > is being done to obtain similar data for Molniyas at a > range of 20,000 km. > > Table 2 Molniya Optical Magnitudes > > Molniya (SSC #) Magnitude Uncertainty > 7780 13.29 0.62 > 8015 13.68 0.71 > 9829 17.94 1.11 > 9941 12.74 0.57 > 9941 (2nd obs) 12.78 0.51 > 12915 12.71 0.48 > 13070 13.27 0.51 > 13070 (2nd obs) 13.73 0.49 > 16220 12.31 0.56 > 16220 (2nd obs) 12.30 0.51 > 19730 12.35 0.44 > 19730 (2nd obs) 12.73 0.46 Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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