Re: transit 24?

I don't think that it was a reflection from Transit 24 (88-33B) any more.

Searching through 4176 elsets for culminations above 70 degrees and
satellites moving from North to South with eclipse between 40 to 70 deg
up in the South within the 40 minute interval 04:25 to 05:05 UTC
I found:

1979-24G   11302  Cosmos 1087
1983-115A  14521  Cosmos 1510
1987-20H   18730  Cosmos 1823 Deb.
1987-74G   18340  SL-14 R/B (C* 1875-80 r)
1988-33B   19071  Transit 24

83-115A and 87-74G were already found by Walter Nissen as candidates
which seemed not very promising. So I paid no attention to them.

79-24G is a small comsat (dia 1 m?/RCS 0.56 qm).
87-20H is a small fragment (RCS 0.12 qm).
So I was left with 88-33B (RCS 2.5 qm).

Now, looking at the RCS value of 83-115A (16.3 qm), it seems to be
a much better candidate as 88-33B.

Cosmos 1510
1 14521U 83115  A 95123.87346693 -.00000004  00000-0  10000-3 0  8917
2 14521  73.6136  61.0752 0027196  57.2080 303.1569 12.41039440518929

Cosmos 1510 moved from North to South reaching 82 deg (SSW) at 04:29.5 UTC
and entered eclipse at 04:32.2 UTC 51 deg above the southern horizon.

> From the descriptions (near the summer solstice, near midnight, polar
> orbit, high, bright, _red_) I immediately thought it must be Lacrosse.

The orbital inclination (73.6 deg) is more similar to 68.0 deg (Lacrosse 2).
Transit 24 has 90.3 deg.

Cosmos 1510 is a geodetic satellite with retroreflectors for laser tracking.
Shape, weight and size are unknown.

Rainer (r.kracht@abbs.heide.de)