Raduga 21, weird flash pattern

From: Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Date: Wed Jul 25 2001 - 16:37:21 PDT

  • Next message: Paul Gabriel: "obs 26jul 01207.13"

    For a couple of nights I got some peculiar flash times.  The first
    night I thought they were possibly Gorizont 14 and Raduga 21 
    commingled, as they were very close to the same position.  The 
    second night again I got odd flash times, but Gorizont 14 should 
    have moved on to the west.  I asked Mike McCants about these, and 
    last night he put his telescope on Raduga 21 (18631, 87-100A) and 
    found that it alone was the source of these times.  Here's a sample 
    that I got last night using his telescope:
    
    ...... 88.85, 32.06, 47.83, 37.63
    32.63, 88.31, 32.00, 47.60, 38.24
    32.63, 88.36, 31.36, 48.28, 37.87
    
    One reason there's some inexactness in the values is because some
    of the maxima last four to six seconds!
    
    It's fairly low in the west from Austin.  The flash episode here 
    seems to gradually end or at least diminish greatly before 5:00 
    UTC; not sure when it starts.  Not sure when it would flash for 
    observers to the west of here.  I was seeing some flashes in 10x50 
    binoculars, including last night, but I believe that to get all of 
    the above segments requires a telescope.  Its mean motion is 
    pretty close to geosynchronous, so it's not moving much at all in 
    longitude from night to night.
    
    If I remember correctly, the first I heard of this one flashing 
    was from Steve LaLumondiere sometime last year.
    
    Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA
    
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