Satellite help

Matson, Robert (ROBERT.D.MATSON@cpmx.saic.com)
Wed, 7 Jul 1999 12:21:41 -0700

Hi Wayne,

Sorry -- my last message somehow got sent before I finished...
Let's try again:

> The first is an old one..and I suspect only a few of you, if any will be
> able to help me, if anyone can at all. This event occurred on 1998 Dec 14,
> at 08:36:48 UT (03:36:48 EST). At that time I observed...THROUGH THE
> CLOUDS...what I recorded as a -8 Magnitude meteor. ...
> The position I recorded was Azimuth 271 Elevation 20, or RA 4h 8m,
> Dec +13.7. My location is  NJAA OBSERVATORY, HIGH BRIDGE, NJ USA
> COORDINATES: 74d 53' 54" West   40d 40' 52" North ELEVATION: 830 feet
> (253 Meters).

Unless this was a satellite reentry, it was very likely a meteor.
No Iridium satellites could have flared at that time and location,
and I did a complete search of 8000+ objects and came up empty.
Nothing sunlit was low enough and bright enough to get anywhere
close to this bright, so that narrows it down to "self-luminous"
bodies.

> The second one is not a meteor related sighting, rather it's an UNID for
> me. On July 5th 1999 at 22:18 EDT (02:18 July 6 UT) from the same
> location, I was out checking sky conditions when I observed a bright
> satellite (~+0.5) about 40 degrees elevation in the WSW moving from
> NW to SW. This was a slow moving satellite, much slower than ISS or
> MIR, hence it must be in a pretty high orbit, which is why the
> brightness surprised me.

The best match I can find is USA 32.  Try the following TLE.  The
time is off by about 3 1/2 minutes, but of the candidates in the
area it's the only one likely to be off by that much.

USA 32           6.0  3.0  0.0  5.3 d
1 19460U 88078A   99178.12273000  .00000190  00000-0  71855-4 0    03
2 19460  84.9875  68.1797 0002000 271.4300  88.5698 14.31336948    06

--Rob