Flash email report for February 1995 ------------------------------------ Some history The Belgian Working Group Satellites (BWGS) has been active in collecting flash period observations of artificial satellites since 1987. All observations are part of the PPAS database (Photometric Periods of Artificial Satellites) which now contains over 32000 observations from more than 1000 satellites. The Working Group publishes a monthly newsletter Flash, which is open to any contributions by observers (about any satellite observations). This email report is an addition to the newsletter. We welcome all observers to send their flash timings to bdp@mpe.mpe-garching.mpg.de or BWGS, Bart De Pontieu, MPE, Giessenbachstrasse, D-85740 Garching, Germany. SATORAMA (by Tristan Cools) Our observing programme can be found in part 2. It is subdivided in categories, the codes of which can be found below. b flashing object for beginners d difficult to measure S steady object, potentially flashing in the future ? flash period is unknown or uncertain - long flash period (>40 s) ! top-priority object regular object Special remarks 75- 27 E: double maxima 81- 84 B: no change 83- 75 A: long period, small amplitude 83- 89 B: see article JP Rohart in 'Flash' last month 84- 35 B: new, CZ3 in GTO orbit 86- 92 J: descelerated very fast 87- 17 B: almost steady 87- 87 B: long period now 87- 88 A: same remark as above 88- 50 A: new, flashing with 6-8s ? 93- 59 B: sometimes S or sa 94- 68 B: no observations yet ! 94- 74 B: who will be the first one to observe it ? 94- 78 B: as expected, deleted because S 94- 81 B: almost deleted because will re-enter soon Top-priority objects 65- 08 A: continues to accelerate 70-106 B: more obs ! 79- 30 B: to be watched closely 84-109 B: global decrease 85- 23 J: no change 85- 41 B: sometime S or sa 86- 02 J: acceleration confirmed by LB 86- 93 B: short period now ! 88-102 A: confirmation needed ! 89- 28 B: dtm ? 90- 36 B: some secundary maxima 91- 59 B: see above 92- 08 B: slightly going down... 92- 12 B: still going down 92- 38 A: to be observed again ! 94- 45 B: stopped accelerating Observers of January 1995 ANO: Antero Olkkonen, Ristiina, Finland BDP: Bart De Pontieu, Garching, Germany BJG: Bjoern Gimle, Stockholm, Sweden MM: Mike McCants, Austin, Texas, USA RE: Russell Eberst, Edinburgh, Scotland TC: Tristan Cools, Brugge, Belgium WV: Willy Verhaegen, Wetteren, Belgium Total number of observations: 130 Next deadline for sending in observations: March 3, 1995 #end of part 1/3