Re: Observ. Fri Eve: Bright unid flasher

Robert Sheaffer (sheaffer@netcom.com)
Tue, 10 Jun 1997 07:52:34 -0700 (PDT) 

Bjoern Gimle
> 
> >
>  Observations 6 June 1997 Fri Eve.   (Sat morning, 7 June UT)
> >
> >06:03    UT  Approx time of near-zenith culmination of northbound 
> >             Mag 4 satellite, possibly Cosmos 1766 r (#16882).
> >
> >06:08:40 UT  Approx time of near-zenith culmination of unindentified
> >             flashing satellite. Passed overhead in interior of
> >             Bootes down along the "handle" of the Big Dipper.
> >             Bright flash at Mag 2 to minimum of approx 5, with
> >             period of 8.8 seconds. 6 flash periods timed in 53 sec.,
> >             starting at 06:08:49. No likely candidate in
> >             molczan.tle. Best match in alldat.tle was #12086,
> >             80095E. What kind of object is this?
> >
> As I read my predictions (SkyMap) #12086 was passing from alpha to beta
> Bootis in about two hours (!) and was far from the handle, moving
> almost perpendicular to it.
> 
> #12086 is an 8 m2 RCS SL-6 rocket, in 12 hr Molniya orbit.

Unless this object was near perigee, we can rule it out. What I saw
was in low orbit, moving quickly.

> 
> I had hoped your obs would match one of the new launches, but the closest
> I find are the 97-28 objects, moving parallell to #12086 about 04:39 and
> 05:29, and at 05:53 across the Bowl.
> 
> However, I see that 97-28 C maneuvred between the two elsets bridging
> your observation time :
> Proton C
> 1 24829U 97028C   97158.15410951  .00022679  34646-5  10000-3 0    20
> 2 24829  64.5388 182.7647 1483922 257.7356  85.4128 12.78625378    63
> Proton C raised
> 1 24829U 97028C   97158.34559028 -.00000045  00000-0  00000+0 0    32
> 2 24829  63.4143 193.1569 0727479 335.8974 166.5532 11.07184566    82
> 
> and other elsets may also have changed around that time.
> The 06:09 pass of the rocket would below the NW horizon.

Would we expect this to be tumbling, with a period of about 9 seconds?

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        Robert Sheaffer - robert@debunker.com - Skeptical to the Max!
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