Re: Cosmos 2219r Tumbling?
Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Sat, 19 Jun 1999 16:09:50 -0500
J. Kocijanski (kocis@catskill.net) wrote:
] Last night I observed Cosmos 2219r at around 9:51 EDT moving NE
] through the Keystone. I seemed to vary in magnitude greatly.
] ... Does this indicate that it is tumbling?
This object (22220, 92-76B) clearly was tumbling slowly on its
pass over here last night; at one power I observed three maxima.
Listening to WWV in the background, I estimated about 65 seconds
between the second and third maxima.
Other things--
There have been very spectacular passes of Iridiums 11 (24842,
97-30G), 14 (23836, 97-30A), and 79 (25470, 98-51D) here recently.
Iridium 14 has been doing a series of double flashes separated by
only about 0.5 second.
Observed 99099 last night with binoculars, but I was not able to
find Starshine (possibly due to some clouds in the way). ISS was
nice but not exceptional.
Milstar 3 (25724, 99-23A) and its Centaur (25725, 99-23B) are
pretty easy to find on most passes as long as conditions are
reasonably favorable. The Centaur's tumbling appears to be
somewhat asymmetrical -- two equal maxima but one minimum fainter
than the other; the maxima occur just a bit less frequently than
the ticks of WWV.
DSP 19 Titan (25670, 99-17B) is very bright, tumbling slowly.
Some USA 86 (22251, 92-83A) passes recently have been visible at
one power, even from mid-city.
IntelSat 503 Rk (13007, 81-119B) is a nice almost one-power
flasher that I've seen several times lately; its period is about
6.8 seconds.
Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!
Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA