Gorizont 14 and 23 (Re: geoflashers : prograde or retrograde spinning ?)

From: Kurt Jonckheere (kjon@yucom.be)
Date: Sun Dec 29 2002 - 06:37:17 EST

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    hello,
    
    unfortenately wheather is bad here these days and will probably be the
    same the next days, I only had some short opportunities to check
    Gorizont 14 (87- 40 A = 17969) and 23 (91- 46 A = 21533).
    
    Gorizont 23 was not seen on
    Dec 11 : between 19h10m and 19h30m : fainter than +11
    Dec 18 : between 19h15m and 19h25m : fainter than + 9 (full moon)
    
    On Dec 25, later during the night I finally found it, so its faint period is
    finished or it is only bright later during the night (seen from Europe) :
    Dec 25-26 : one flash time at Dec 26 0h07m03.8s, period was 55.81 +- 0.01 s,
    magnitude during flashes about +8
    
    
    Gorizont 14 seen about 30 hours before Mike, so to much time to integrate
    the flash period and find the time difference :
    Dec 26 : one flash time at Dec 26 21h25m16.5s, period was 87.105 +-0.015 s,
    magnitude during flashes between +4 and +5.5.  Flashes were about
    2-3 secondslong.
    
    As the clouds were moving in at then time I tried Raduga 27 = 21132
    = 91- 14 A which I had never seen before.
    Just before clouds covered everything I saw three flashes around
    Dec 26 21h40m, period 70.1 +- 0.3, magnitude +6, so another
    easy geosat (even for those with binoculars).
    
    Currently, I'm putting together a web page on the BWGS pages about
    the seasonal variations of the flashing period of Geostationary sats.  It
    is not yet finished but already contains some results and ideas for
    discussion.
    
    You can find it at (thanks Tristan) :
    
    http://users.skynet.be/satimage/bwgs/kj/gorizont.htm
    
    All comments are appreciated !
    
    regards,
    
    Kurt
    
    Mike wrote :
    > I compute 1600 miles/sec at a range of 22000 miles with a flash
    > period of 87 seconds.
    > So, yes, about 2 or 3 seconds.
    
    > >to define a target observing window and some target satellites
    >
    > My target window will be 01:00 to 04:00 tonight.
    >
    > Mike McCants
    
    
    
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