The Belgian Working Group Satellites E-mail Report

Bart De Pontieu (BDP@MPE.MPE-GARCHING.MPG.DE)
Fri, 17 Feb 1995 23:07:55 +0100 (CET)

                 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