Strober: airplane or satellite?
Walter Nissen (dk058@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Sat, 29 Jul 1995 14:52:56 -0400
While I was observing the steady light and steady course of
C* 1908 6.0 2.0 0.0 5.9
1 18748U 88001A 95200.50608565 +.00000172 +00000-0 +17530-4 0 03024
2 18748 082.5093 201.1607 0017227 252.6462 107.2873 14.84617757406985
at 950729 085618 from -81.8637, 41.3735, 256m, it appulsed an object which
was moving very much slower along a more level path, but generally in the
same direction as C* 1908, and strobing with a fairly regular period of
somewhere in the vicinity of 2s. The closest approach of the two objects
was about 2 or 3 degrees, roughly. I calculate C* 1908 at 3h 21.9, +22.9
(2000.0) at that moment.
NOSS 5 (C) 0.3 0.9 2.4 8.1
1 14143U 83056 C 95147.07491127 .00000022 00000-0 30324-4 0 05
2 14143 63.4130 17.4078 0310000 3.9916 356.0084 13.40266233 07
might have been the object but it was in a steeper course and would have
had to be a minute early.
I find nothing better in my file of 1000 bright objects. Could someone
with a large file of elsets identify the slower object? I'm interested in
knowing the result, because I have a suspicion that this may have been a
distant airplane and would like to know better how to calibrate my
airplane/satellite discriminator. (Can anyone who has observed the NOSS 5
objects, unlike me, report whether they have been observed strobing with
very brief flashes? I have not observed the NOSS 2-n clusters flashing).
Thanks.
Cheers.
Walter Nissen dk058@cleveland.freenet.edu 216-243-4980
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Astronomy is lights in the sky.