Re: Telstar 401 and ASC 1

From: Robert G Fenske Jr (fenske@rgfpc.electro.swri.edu)
Date: Mon Jan 14 2002 - 18:31:51 EST

  • Next message: Robert G Fenske Jr: "Re: Iridium flare was slow"

    On Mon, 14 Jan 2002, Ed Cannon wrote:
    
    > After getting back to my apartment, without magnification I
    > was able to see nine flashes from Telstar 401 (93-077A,
    > 22927), two or three of them seemingly comparable to Rigel
    > in magnitude.  A neighbor also saw two of them.  I watched
    > four more fainter ones with binoculars.  The part of the
    > episode that I saw was from about 3:23:05 to 3:51:07 Jan 14
    > UTC (last one about twelve minutes earlier than the previous
    > night).  There seems to be an alternating brighter-fainter
    > pattern after the brightest ones, so that I did not see the
    > next-to-last flash.  PPAS:
    >
    > 93- 77 A 02-01-14 03:51:07   EC 1562.2 0.3  13 120.17 +0.5?->inv
    
    	I observed Telstar 401 last night, coincidently at almost exactly
    the same time period (03:23 to 03:51)!  I timed 6 periods with the naked eye
    from 03:27 to 03:39 (720.8 sec) giving 120.13 sec/period.  All the flashes
    were about as bright as Rigel except the 03:39 flash which was about +3.  I
    could only see the flashes with binoculars after that.  The cold drove me
    inside at 03:52 or so since I was without a jacket.  Returning outside around
    04:04 I failed to see any more flashes.
    
    	I then turned my binoculars toward Gorizont 23.  Through binoculars I
    saw a +4-ish flash but it didn't seem to be in quite the right place.
    Eventually I saw another flash (at least 2 minutes later).  It was definitely
    east of where I was expecting it.  Back inside I went.  I determined the sat
    must have been ASC 1.  Going back outside I looked for more flashes but
    didn't see any.  These two flashes would have been about in the 04:06 - 04:10
    time frame.
    
    Robert Fenske, Jr.   rfenske@swri.edu    Sw     |The Taming the C*sm*s series:
    Southwest Research Institute            /R---\  |
    Signal Exploitation & Geolocation Div  | I    | |"The Martian canals were the
    San Antonio,Texas USA  ph:210-522-3931  \----/  | Martians' last ditch effort."
    
    
    
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
    Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe'
    in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org
    http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jan 14 2002 - 18:38:30 EST