Last night I was startled when I spotted a satellite that flashed quite brightly every 6.7 seconds and moved very slowly from my southwest towards the zenith. It flashed to about 4th magnitude. Some flashes were "double flashes" separated by only 0.2 seconds or so. I watched it for about 20 minutes in binoculars and my 8-inch telescope. When I stopped, it was tumbling between magnitude 8 and 10 with a period of 13.4 seconds. Today I identified it as: Molniya 1-53 1 13070U 82015A 04342.11283199 +.00000208 +00000-0 -10109-2 0 07121 2 13070 063.6099 356.7662 7339679 280.1303 011.3385 02.00679506166832 BCRC: 30.3N 97.9W 2004 Dec 9 CST Thu evening - times below are Dec 10 UT 13070 Molniya 1-53 82 15A Mag Hrs Min Alt Azi Hgt Range(miles) 10.1 2 30 27 220 3093 4312 9.8 2 35 43 225 3872 4586 9.7 2 40 55 232 4649 5058 9.8 2 45 64 242 5412 5648 10.0 2 50 70 256 6156 6300 Mike McCants ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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