Hi John,
20 arcminutes in 2 minutes translates to 10 degrees per hour or 240
degrees per day - that is exceptionally fast and implies if it were an NEO,
it would have to be extremely close - possible, but not nearly as likely as
it being a satellite. It sounds more like a geosynch satellite in a high
inclination orbit or some other high altitude satellite. Most of the NEOs we
see that are very close to Earth (within about 2 or so lunar distances)
typically move betweeen about 5 and 30 degrees per day.
Jim.
On Sun, 19 Dec 2004, satcom wrote:
> At 2056 gmt ( RA 3.59.5 DEC -7.31 ) a small object approx mag 10-15 moved
> through the FOV.
> It took something like 2 minutes to track 20 arc minutes and travelled
> roughly North to South.
> May have been a deep space satellite , but it could also be a small NEO.
>
> Any near earth object experts on the list ?
>
> (Pics/animation to follow )
>
> John
Jim Scotti
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive:
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Dec 19 2004 - 17:05:48 EST