Sky conditions were not good -- limiting magnitude was generally about +2 (cirrus haze). I really did not expect to see an UNID. But just as I quit watching Topex and released my binoculars I saw an extra star, at least +2, maybe +1, a few degrees west of Vega! It was going south in a retrograde orbit. It faded quickly, but I was able to watch it with my binoculars. I went near the zenith, and when I had to rotate, I picked up an object that I think was it; this went not far west of alpha OPH. Anyway, using Findsat and alldat.tle I got one seemingly fairly good match, 05359, 70-025KQ, a fragment of the Thorad Agena that launched Nimbus 4. HOWEVER, this object's RCS is .008 -- so it seems very unlikely that this is what I saw. 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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