No bright (mv) satellite found within +-4 min (tdiff) and 11 degrees (Sep)
in file satbase.tle
(FE) should be around 10 for a descent to the N - I am constantly advocating
against the latter way of describing direction of motion:
The most accurate way is scetching the path among stars in the
neighbourhood; or describing distance and direction to nearby stars (even
better to pairs of nearby stars); expressing motion as if you held the face
of a clock to the satellite, with 12 up, 6 down (local vertical). This is
what FE in IDsat does - I prefer it the way QuickSat does (Dir = (FE-6) in
degrees; 10 ~ 120 deg). You should also try to estimate the speed of
apparent motion - if no stellar references use your (specified) binocular
field-of-view; if no tool available, count the seconds, and use the spread
between your thumb and index finger tips as about 14 degrees. The time
estimated is to be compared to (Vang) deg/s in IDsat.
In classfd.tle IDsat finds a DMSP - they usually don't flash regularly, but
can give one or two Iridium-like flares. DMSP B5D2-8 95015A #23533 was
very nearly in NW (315 deg) at 18:50:00, but at 17 deg altitude, moving down
(in Dir=120) between alpha/gamma Cygni. (Both IDsat output files, and SkyMap
screen shot sent to Marcus) :
99000 99 000A 5003 P 20020222185000000 17 25 2149000+510000 99 +010 10
NORAD 2-line elements source file : \tle\classfd.tle
Maximum time difference = 240 s
Maximum angular separation = 12 deg
tdiff Sep mv RCS Range Trk FE
Vang Age Unc
Name Desig NORAD s deg pred m^2 km deg hour
deg/s days s
-------------- -------- ----- -------- ----- ------ ---- ----- --- ---- --
--- ---- -------
DMSP B5D2-8 95015A 23533 42.66 10.21 9.2 v 5.61 1817 343 9.9
0.19 23 3.7
DMSP B5D2-8
1 23533U 95015A 02031.27373439 0.00001200 00000-0 63040-3 0 02
2 23533 98.8536 43.4978 0007000 6.1610 353.8390 14.14159424 09
/Björn
-- bjorn.gimle@tietotech.se (office) --
-- b_gimle@algonet.se (home) http://www.algonet.se/~b_gimle --
-- COSPAR 5919, MALMA, 59.2576 N, 18.6172 E, 23 m --
-- COSPAR 5918, HAMMARBY, 59.2985 N, 18.1045 E, 44 m --
----- Original Message -----
> 22nd Feb.at sometime about 18:50 UTC,I saw a flasher low(about 30deg
> elevation)in the NW,heading and descending N.The flashes were at least
mag.0
> and the flash period was at least 5 seconds.I appreciate that this data is
> so infuriatingly approximate that it's going to make any kind of ID
> tricky(and I'll continue to strive for greater accuracy with my
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 25 2002 - 16:16:19 EST