Re: UNID Flasher

From: Michael McCants (mmccants@jump.net)
Date: Mon Jun 03 2002 - 14:59:14 EDT


On Thursday evening, Don Gardner saw an unid and posted:

>I observed a flasher that I thought to be a geosync flasher at
>first, except it was not in the Clarke belt.  
>
>It began flashing at 03:13:49 UTC, 31 May at RA 14deg 15min
>01.6 sec, Dec +17deg 15min 40 sec - about 1.5 deg below
>Arcturus (az 196.25, el 67.4).  Flashes were about 8 seconds
>apart and were typically +4 to +5.5 with some secondary
>flashes.  I timed the flashes until 03:24 UTC.

Ed Cannon posted that MDS 1 was "in the vicinity".

Last night I happened to spot what I assume is this same object.
It was flashing to magnitude 6 or 7 with a period very nearly
equal to 8 seconds.  I tracked it for a while and when I use Don's
obs to determine a mean motion, I get:

1 90012U          02154.20281134 0.00002000  00000-0  30012-2 0    08
2 90012  28.3079 168.6802 7250958 246.7117  95.8751  2.26525192    07

This compares very well in orbit plane, eccentricity, etc. with the
three cataloged objects associated with MDS 1:

1 27367U 02003A   02153.24344790  .00001705  00000-0  41409-2 0   774
2 27367  28.3283 169.1098 7230557 246.0866  26.2217  2.27159392  2684

1 27368U 02003B   02154.22212506  .00002469  00000-0  47613-2 0   796
2 27368  28.3607 168.6057 7239028 246.8135  25.8248  2.27057631  2708

1 27369U 02003C   02153.26820004 +.00005059 +00000-0 +98581-2 0 00741
2 27369 028.3522 168.9092 7234290 246.3552 026.0714 02.27534731002680

Since our obs do not match any of these objects, I assume that this
is an uncataloged fourth object.

Prediction for last night:

     30.3138  97.8661  900.      Bee Caves Rsrch Ctr

  ***  2002 Jun  2   Sun evening *** Times are CDT ***

90012 Unknown                     M 4.5
  U  MAG    HGT ALT AZI  HRS MIN     R  A    DEC  RANGE
 42 12.1  17371  67 235   11  40   13 35.3  16.3  17619
 44 12.2  17994  68 238   11  50   13 42.8  17.2  18240
 46 12.2  18569  68 241   12   0   13 49.9  18.0  18817
 48 12.3  19098  67 244   12  10   13 56.7  18.8  19352
 49 12.3  19583  67 247   12  20   14  3.1  19.5  19845
 51 12.4  20024  67 249   12  30   14  9.3  20.1  20297

At this range of 19000 miles, the flashes were about 6 magnitudes
brighter than the background magnitude of 12 or 13.  The flashes were
not as quick as solar panel flashes from Superbird A - they seemed
to last several tenths of a second.  Even at 20000 miles, they were easily
visible in my 12x80 finder telescope.

Mike McCants
Austin, TX

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