My search is inconclusive - if your coordinates are OK and I typed them correctly. I find "only" Cosmos 1266 (81037A, #12409), but it was <0.1 degree ABOVE Jupiter 22:38:01 CDT, and not very fast (range 1465 km), but it was southbound. BTW it is usually more conclusive to say (about this as an example - see chart sent privately) that it was moving in direction 250 degrees relative to the local vertical near Jupiter. Candidate below Jupiter >2 deg off, and >3 min early. Above Mizar and Benetnasch (I have Alkaid at that position) I have Cosmos 489 rocket (named SL-8 R/B at SpaceTrack) #06020, 72035B, but at 6-8 degrees distance. It passed Mizar 23:26:15 and entered shadow 23:28:30, further south than Envisat's exit, because it was higher, 964 km. At 2-3 degrees I have a Delta 1 rocket from ESSA 4 (DELTA 1 R/B #02661 67006B), but going N, and SkyMap predicts it at mag +10 - range 1900 km. There is a tool by Ted Molczan, IDsat, which requires typing your observation details into a file,or using the graphic generation program ObsReduce, also by Ted. It gives a text file result with time/position errors, and speed and direction of motion. Example: "Maximum time difference = 120 s Maximum angular separation = 3 deg tdiff Sep mv RCS Range Trk FE Vang Age Unc Name Desig NORAD s deg pred m^2 km deg hour deg/s days s -------------- -------- ----- -------- ----- ------ ---- ----- --- ---- ----- ---- ------- Cosmos 586 r 73065B 6829 104.41 2.30 5.2 v 7.18 1430 170 11.7 0.22 1 0.0 Cosmos 1808 86100A 17239 -49.93 1.36 6.5 d 3.84 1461 170 11.9 0.21 0 0.0 Cosmos 2227 r 92093B 22285 -0.18 0.02 3.3 v 17.8 1232 27 4.5 0.29 -0 0.0 99057MG 99057MG 26759 52.03 0.02 9.3 r .005 1072 348 6.1 0.30 7 1.2" I find it much easier to use a graphic prediction program (with sat tracks and time+ID tags) to match my visual impression of direction/speed of motion. My favourite is SkyMap by Rob Matson, which also allows you to suppress objects at too large (or small) distance (~1/speed) and too faint (predicted) magnitude. /Björn ----- Original Message ----- ... > desired to be seen (wanted two, saw three). The observer was roughly > at > 30d8m42.6sN 97d52m43.8sW. Both observations occurred on 19 July 2006 > CDT. >... > The first occurred between 22:37:55 and 22:38:20 CDT (0337 and 0338 > UTC), within one degree directly below Jupiter. A fast-moving > south-bound object was observed. It was between 3.5 and 4.0 magnitude. ... > > The second was a naked-eye object of magnitude 2. It was spotted while > waiting for Envisat to show up in Bootes. Fifteen seconds prior to the > 23:28:00 CDT appearance time for Envisat, the observer noted a vehicle > coming up roughly parallel to Mizar A (RA 13:23:55.5 Dec 54:55:31.0) > and > Benetnasch (RA 13:47:32.40 Dec 49:18:48.0) in Ursa Major, also > traveling > southward. It was within five degrees of elevation above this line at > the time. It disappeared into the Earth's shadow within a few seconds > of > Envisat coming out, so the two vehicles were at similar altitudes but > different inclinations. > ... > > For the future, what tools are available which would allow > determination > of likely candidate vehicles? Will I have to write my own? SGP4 looks > challenging. 8> > > John > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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