Ed, a circular orbit fit to your revised two timed positions and site coordinates, yields a 66.5 deg, 847 km orbit, reminiscent of the 71 deg Tselina 2 orbit, home to the bright Zenit rocket bodies. IDSat turned up 95058B: Cosmos 2322 r 10.4 3.9 0.0 3.9 v 22.7 1 23705U 95058B 04185.23630873 .00000335 00000-0 19812-3 0 1317 2 23705 71.0150 233.6838 0013423 302.4703 57.5121 14.14779453447863 The only problem is that I had to widen the search to +/- 5 minutes of your reported time, and 95058B was nearly 3 min earlier than you reported. However, its track agrees rather well with all three observed positions, and the time difference is about the same for both timed positions: Relative your 03:58:20.3 UTC position, it was 173.32 s early and within 0.32 deg. Relative your 03:58:34.5 UTC position, it was 173.35 s early and within 0.11 deg. Are you absolutely certain that your reported times could not have been late by 173.32 s? I know you took some other timings that night, for example, in a private message you mentioned having clicked on Topex at 3:55:41.5 UTC. You observed it just prior to the UNID, but your timing of it is 24.5 s later than the first of your timed UNID positions, assuming that it was 95058B. Of course, if there was a systematic error in your time calibration/reduction, then all of your times would be 173.3 s late. That would put your Topex timing at 03:52:48, at about az 207, el 24 deg, fairly early in its pass, consistent with your comment that you probably watched it a minute or even two after that, because it was quite bright. That accounts rather well for the time leading up to your next planned observation: Landsat 5, which was due to exit the penumbra at about 03:56:58 UTC, near az 81, el 69 deg. If your UNID was 95058B, then your first un-timed position was at 03:55:00 UTC, which makes sense, because it preceded Landsat 5. Ted Molczan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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