Hi All, I've crunched some numbers on three observations of bright glints from 96072A -- two by myself, and one by Paul Gabriel. (Paul's glint observation was during the same pass as the first one I observed; due to our very different locations, the glints had to have been caused by two different surfaces.) I don't have an exact time for my first glint (since it was totally unexpected), but the time should be good to +/- 10 seconds. My second glint observation, 2 days later and VERY bright at at least magnitude -2, was timed to within 1 second -- plenty accurate for our purposes. If anyone else has some glint timings from 96072A, I'd be interested in crunching numbers on them as well to see if we get any repeat surfaces. Anyway, here's a summary of the LVLH satellite surface normals corresponding to the three glints I have so far: Date UTC Time Uncert. Azim Elev Observer ---- -------- ------- ----- ----- ---------- 7/12 04:16:20 +/- :10 298.3 -30.1 R. Matson 7/12 04:16:24 +/- :03 283.0 -75.0 P. Gabriel 7/14 05:00:52 +/- :01 315.8 -50.1 R. Matson Of course, the LVLH coordinates only have meaning if the bird flies in an LVLH-mode (like Iridium), and unfortunately I suspect that it doesn't. The glints are far too fast to be attributable to orbital motion geometry changes alone. I would guess that the satellite is spinning slowly. (If it was spinning fast, you would see at least double flashes.) Best, Rob ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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