This is intended to be an attempt at thinking about where to look for the expected "comet" from the upcoming Milstar launch. I believe that the comet from the 16 January 2002 Milstar launch was at about longitude 95 west. If the one now scheduled for Tuesday, 4 February, does about the same, its *azimuth* from any location might be *roughly* similar to that of the following two satellites, which appear to be stationed at about 95 west (I just got elements and ran Ted's Geolong program to check.): 25086 97-078A Galaxy 8i 27445 02-030A Galaxy 3c So running predictions for those for your location for that evening should give at least a rough idea of the azimuth of the comet, I think. From Austin, the comet from the January 2002 launch was higher than the normal geostationary altitude above the horizon. I believe it was due to the Centaur still being at a somewhat north inclination at the time. For comparison, here's a list of near-zero inclination, near-zero drift payloads from 91 to 101 west longitude, excerpted from Geolong output: Cat # COSPAR ID Name Incl Longitude 26038 1999-071A Galaxy 11 0.0 91.1 W 25740 1999-027A Nimiq 0.0 91.2 W 26469 2000-046A Brasilsat B4 0.1 92.1 W 27632 2002-062A Nimiq 2 0.1 92.7 W .20/day drift W 25626 1999-005A Telstar 6 0.0 93.1 W 25086 1997-078A Galaxy 8i 0.3 95.0 W 27445 2002-030A Galaxy 3c 0.0 95.1 W 24812 1997-026A Telstar 5 0.0 97.1 W 21149 1991-018A Inmarsat II F-2 1.6 98.0 W 26871 2001-031A GOES 12 0.4 98.8 W .32/day drift E 26298 2000-020A Galaxy IVR 0.0 99.1 W 23192 1994-047A DBS 2 0.0 100.8 W 25937 1999-056A DirecTV-1R 0.0 100.9 W 23553 1995-019A AMSC 1 0.0 101.1 W 25954 1999-060A GE 4 0.0 101.2 W 26985 2001-052A DirecTV 4S 0.0 101.3 W Retired astronaut/senator John Glenn is scheduled to speak in San Antonio that evening. Hoping for favorable weather. Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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
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