Paul Floyd requested the maximum visual magnitude of Fedsat (02056B / 27598), a 58 cm cube. I estimate its standard visual magnitude (1000 km, 90 deg phase angle) is about 9.4: FEDSAT 0.6 0.6 0.0 9.4 d 1 27598U 02056B 03001.75242129 .00000149 00000-0 78418-4 0 278 2 27598 98.6716 75.9434 0009061 317.4563 42.5911 14.27702434 2678 Under the most favourable conditions, it may reach about magnitude 8, which would make it visible in 11x80 binoculars or a small telescope. Unfortunately, only the most southerly parts of Australia have the most favourable conditions, and then only around the summer solstice. Melbourne has a good pass in a couple of days; the object may reach mag 8.3 just before it enters Earth's penumbra: 5/ 1/ 3 00:00 - 05:36 DST J2000.0 EL > 0 Melbourne AU FEDSAT 02056B 27598 Bull = 27 Melbourne AU SGP4 Age = 2.8 d Unc = 0 s ( 25%) Src = 0 TIME %I Mvd AZ EL R.A. DEC FE VANG RANGE ALT -------- -- ---- --- -- -------- --------- ---- ---- ----- ----- 00:01:56 13 14.3 168 0 16:18:45 -50:48:26 5.8 0.06 3300 818 00:04:02 17 13.2 168 9 16:02:18 -59:17:38 5.9 0.08 2461 815 00:05:32 21 12.2 168 18 15:34:30 -67:50:04 5.9 0.12 1876 813 00:06:33 27 11.4 169 27 14:38:08 -75:41:19 6.0 0.17 1499 812 00:07:16 32 10.7 169 36 12:14:07 -81:11:25 6.0 0.24 1254 811 00:07:48 38 10.1 170 45 08:37:28 -79:51:12 6.1 0.30 1091 810 00:08:13 45 9.6 172 53 06:56:10 -73:31:07 6.1 0.37 980 809 00:08:33 51 9.2 173 61 06:15:10 -66:17:01 6.2 0.42 908 809 00:08:51 57 8.9 177 69 05:52:27 -58:31:46 6.3 0.47 858 808 00:09:07 62 8.6 184 77 05:38:22 -50:51:19 6.5 0.51 827 808 00:09:22 68 8.5 207 84 05:28:23 -43:12:21 7.3 0.52 812 808 00:09:36 73 8.3 289 85 05:20:56 -35:53:21 10.0 0.53 810 807 00:09:39 EP 74 8.3 302 84 05:19:24 -34:11:30 10.5 0.53 811 807 00:09:50 EU 77 inv 323 79 05:14:47 -28:38:22 11.1 0.51 821 807 Ted Molczan ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 - 18:58:53 EST