Hello fellow observers and othe rinteresting people. First I must not forget to wish you all prosperity and many interesting observations for coming year. Thanks to some days off between Christmas and New Year I had some time to process my observations on geostationary satellites during the "flaring" days before or after the equinox. Concerning period is after the autumn equinox in 2002 from my regular observation location: COSPAR 4160 (Achel 1): 51° 16' 45.5" N (51.2793 N), 5° 28' 36.6" E ( 5.4768 E) The observations are date and time ordered. The columns are: - original log time (hh:mm UT) - international satellite designation (yyyy-nnnc) - maximum brightness estimation - minimum brightness estimation - name or note a) thru h) - UT of observation - Right Ascension of observation - declination of observation Last three values were input to program FINDSAT to identify. If you copy and paste following table with font Courier New to another document, you 'll have a properly formatted list. Int.design. max min notes UT RA decl mag mag hh:mm:ss hh mm.mm ° 2002-10-09 20:40 2002-029A 5.0 Express A4 20:40:00 00 47.0 -7.40 20:53 unk 8.0 a) 20:52:48 00 47.0 -7.40 21:30 2001-011A 8.0 Eurobird 21:30:00 00 47.0 -7.40 21:30 unk 8.0 b) 21:30:00 00 47.0 -7.40 21:35 1996-040A 7.5 Arabsat 2A 21:35:00 00 40.4 -7.66 21:42 1994-070A 8.0 Astra 1D 21:43:10 00 40.78 -7.34 21:57 1998-063A 7.8 AfriStar 21:57:00 00 40.78 -7.34 22: 5 unk 8.3 c) 22:05:00 00 40.65 -7.38 2002-10-10 20:23 2000-068A 7.5 Europe*star F1 20:23:30 00 55.37 -7.12 20:39 unk 7.5 9.0 d)e) 20:38:45 00 55.55 -7.27 20:43 2002-029A 8.5 20:43:30 00 55.55 -7.27 21:17 unk 8.0 f) 21:21:29 00 40.32 -7.70 21:17 2000-081A 8.5 Astra 2D 21:21:49 00 40.90 -7.25 21:39 1994-070A 6.5 21:39:10 00 40.68 -7.35 21:43 unk 8.5 inv f) g) 21:43:28 00 40.20 -7.76 21:53 1998-063A 8.0 21:53:15 00 40.69 -7.34 22: 1 unk 8.0 c) 22:01:00 00 40.67 -7.36 2002-10-17 20:40 2000-068A 7.5 20:45:04 01 44.7 -7.24 21:12 2002-029A 6.0 21:12:00 01 51.1 -7.18 21:23 2000-028A 8.0 Eutelsat W4 21:23:00 01 44.9 -7.30 21:23 2000-019A 6.5 SESat 21:23:00 01 43.8 -7.30 21:45 2001-011A 8.0 21:55:04 01 43.8 -7.40 21:45 2000-054A 7.3 Astra 2B 21:55:04 01 43.8 -7.40 21:45 1998-050A 7.3 Astra 2A 21:55:04 01 43.8 -7.40 21:45 2000-081A 8.0 21:55:04 01 43.8 -7.40 22: 7 1996-040A ? 22:07:23 01 44.2 -7.68 22:10 1998-006B 7.5 Inmarsat 3-F5 22:10:30 01 43.5 -7.16 22:25 unk 7.0 c) 22:26:01 01 33.7 -7.42 22:25 unk 8.0 c) 22:26:01 01 33.7 -7.42 22:25 unk 7.5 c) 22:26:01 01 33.7 -7.42 22:25 unk 8.0 c) 22:26:01 01 33.7 -7.42 2002-10-19 21: 5 2002-029A 6.7 21:04:50 01 50.2 -7.23 21:26 2000-028A 8.0 21:26:30 01 56.0 -7.42 21:27 2000-019A 6.5 21:26:30 01 56.0 -7.42 22: 0 2001-011A 8.0 22:00:50 01 56.0 -7.42 22: 0 unk 8.0 b) 22:00:50 01 56.0 -7.42 22: 9 unk ? h) 22:08:35 01 49.9 -7.36 22:29 unk 7.5 c) 22:28:00 01 43.9 -7.48 22:29 unk 8.5 c) 22:28:00 01 43.9 -7.48 22:29 unk 7.5 c) 22:28:00 01 43.9 -7.48 22:29 unk 8.5 c) 22:28:00 01 43.9 -7.48 2002-10-23 21:50 1994-070A 6.2 21:50:53 01 43.7 -7.36 21:57 1996-040A 8.5 21:57:20 01 57.8 -7.71 22:25 unk 8.5 c) 22:12:43 01 43.9 -7.48 22:25 unk 7.5 c) 22:12:43 01 43.9 -7.48 22:25 unk 7.5 c) 22:12:43 01 43.9 -7.48 22:25 unk 8.5 c) 22:12:43 01 43.9 -7.48 2002-10-27 22:25 unk 8.0 c) 22:31:45 02 18.9 -7.46 22:25 unk 9.0 c) 22:31:45 02 18.9 -7.46 22:25 unk 9.0 c) 22:31:45 02 18.9 -7.46 22:25 unk 8.0 c) 22:31:45 02 18.9 -7.46 Notes: a) One of 2000-019A (26243) SESat 2000-028A (26369) Eutelsat W4 b) One of 1998-050A (25462) Astra 2A 2000-054A (26494) Astra 2B 2000-081A (26638) Astra 2D c) One of 1991-015A (21139) Astra 1B 1993-031A (22653) Astra 1C 1995-055A (23686) Astra 1E 1996-021A (23842) Astra 1F 1997-076A (25071) Astra 1G 1999-033A (25785) Astra 1H 2001-025A (26853) Astra 2C d) One of 1996-040B (23949) Turksat 1C 2001-002A (26666) Turksat 2A e) varying 199.3 s for 100 max, stop time 20:39.5 f) could not identify object g) varied in mag. very slowly h) One of 1994-070A (23331) Astra 1D 1999-009A (25638) Arabat 3A 22:25 unk 8.0 c) 22:31:45 02 18.9 -7.46 General remarks: Particularly for the group mentioned in note c) it was not possible to identify the individual objects. They were visible as an almost straight line perpendicular on the direction of motion w.r.t. the background). The extreme members of the group were less than 1/4 degree of each other. Comparing the TLE's did not help, as they all had the same values, except a small variation in the mean anomaly. Exception to this is 2001-025A For this same group I saw several times 7 spots, two bright, two faint. I wonder whether the bright spots were in fact more than one object each, with so little separation that they could not be resolved. I wish I had had more powerful optical means. I used my 10 x 60 (mm) binoculars. These observation sessions give me taste for the more distant satellites and therefore I think I better by me a telscope. Any suggestions? I started even dreaming of a Meade Autostar, when I read the book: "How to Use a Computerized Telescope" of Michael Covington. He describes that this guiding system might be able to follow a satellite track by feeding it TLE's. I suppose this is (far) beyond my financial means. (Keep in mind that I am not clever with my hands) Bram Dorreman, ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Thu Jan 02 2003 - 13:19:50 EST