Obs early on 1 June 97
Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Sun, 01 Jun 1997 02:45:05 -0500
Sue Worden and I observed from shortly after 2:00 UT on 1 June to
about 4:45 UT or so. No telescope. It was a perfect evening for
observing. We were able to see 5 or 6 of the stars in Ursa Minor.
Our location was 30.315N, 97.866W, 280m (Bee Cave Research Center,
Austin, Texas).
Gorizont 23 (91-46A/21533) -- located about 4:15 UT using star
charts and binoculars. I timed 30 periods with elapsed time of
26:42.07, for 53.4023 seconds per period. This was simply by
starting the stopwatch, letting it run, and stopping it on the
30th period. I do not know how accurate my stopwatch is, plus I
was around .1 second late on the stop click. The flashes were
easy in my 10x and Sue's 7x binocs (mag. 5 or a little brighter;
brevity of flashes makes estimation a bit uncertain). (A couple
of nights ago, Mike and I noticed that for a little while at least
the flashes were fainter.)
Cosmos 2343 (97-024A/24805) -- observed without magnification; pass
was 608 km distant from our location, 238 km (149 miles) height.
97-017B/24773 (a CIS Rk) -- near-zenith pass, observed without
magnification; observed to be flashing, but not visible for long
enough to get a period estimate -- it quickly went into shadow.
Sue may have observed it longer than I. (What is 97-017A/24772?)
Resurs 01-3 Rk (94-074B/23343) -- very bright pass, brightest peaks
of mag. between one and zero. Just over a year ago in the PPAS
database its period is listed as 7.9 sec. My observation was 3
periods (4 maxima) in approximately 3 to 4 minutes (60 to 80 seconds
per period). I don't know if this was a phase effect or what, but I
question whether it could have slowed down that much in a year.
Mir -- two passes; the first pass, between 25 and 36 degrees
altitude above horizon, from south to east, was SPECTACULAR!! I
would have said mag. -3 at least; Sue said comparable to Jupiter
at its brightest (-2.x?). There was one even brighter flash. The
next pass, low in northwest, was easy without magnification.
Lacrosse 2 (91-017A/21147) -- pretty good pass from WSW to NW.
HST (90-037B/20580) -- fainter than predicted, but one brighter
flash.
Several other objects observed as well. A great night.
I had a Highfly prediction for a Delta 2 R/B(2) (96-056C/24321) at
a height of 218 km (136 miles; range 589 km/368 miles) but failed
to see it.
Ed Cannon
ecannon@mail.utexas.edu
Austin, Texas, USA
30.3086N, 97.7279W, 165m