Last night while looking with 10x50 binoculars for
Superbird A ("A0"?) to start flashing, at about 3:52
UTC I saw something else flashing rapidly (2.5 seconds)
to possibly +6.5 not very far to its west (a degree or
so). At that time Superbird (which I could not see
yet) was at about RA 0:21, Dec -10.3 (2000), and I
think the UNID was near 0:16:30, -10.0. Mike McCants
got the object in his scope, and we observed it for at
least 30 minutes, until it became too faint.
If the UNID really is geosynchronous, tonight (Sunday
evening local time, Dec. 30 UTC) it and Superbird A0
may be even closer together. Unfortunately, it appears
that our weather here will be unfavorable tonight and
possibly tomorrow night also.
If it turns out that Mike has identified the UNID with
Findsat, I beg your pardon! (I checked it with geo.tle,
eccen.tle, and mccants.tle and did not get a match.)
Last night was good for flashing geosynchs. Besides
that UNID, I was also able to see these with my 10x50
binoculars:
84-114A 15385 Spacenet 2 (flash period about 96.5 sec)
85-087A 16101 Intelsat 512 (about 17.1 sec)
87-040A 17969 Gorizont 14 (about 87.1 sec)
89-041A 20040 Superbird A (or A0, about 22.6/11.3 sec)
91-046A 21533 Gorizont 23 (about 55.7 sec)
I saw a few Superbird flashes without binoculars, and
some of Intelsat 512's probably were bright enough if I
had not been looking at it from outside my apartment.
Gorizont 23 was faint, maybe +7.0 at best. Gorizont
14 had some secondary flashes visible in Mike's 12x80
finder scope. Mike found Spacenet 2 first; he was
looking for either it or GSTAR 1, which were very close
together all evening. (Even with his high-power
eyepiece, we could not see any sign of GSTAR 1.)
We saw two solar panel Iridium flares, Ir 35 (very
nice!) and Ir 97"?" (fainter than predicted). Ir 36
-4 antenna flare was as predicted.
It was a very pretty evening; many objects -- too many
to report -- were easily visible!
Hipparcos at about 8,000 km was attempted but not found.
All but Intelsat 512 were observed from BCRC, 30.315N,
97.866W, 280m.
Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA
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