Cosmos 44 - standard magnitude

From: Ted Molczan (molczan@rogers.com)
Date: Sat Jun 05 2004 - 09:37:09 EDT

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    Kevin Fetter wrote:
    
    > This morning I observed cosmos 44, as it passed near polaris.
    > 
    > It was around mag 6, so brighter then the predicted mag 8 it 
    > was given as. So it was easy to see on the tv. Magnitude data 
    > was determined by size data, and not visual observational 
    > data, since the " d " after the number of 7.4 means that.
    
    Analysis of 32 of Russell Eberst's observations between 1991 and 2004, reveals
    that the standard magnitude is 6.2 (1000 km, 90 deg phase angle):
    
    http://satobs.org/seesat_ref/Cosmos44_mag_vs_phase/Cosmos44.gif
    
    I excluded as outliers, 4 observations that were about 2 to 3 magnitudes
    brighter than others at similar phase angles, but those observations clearly
    show that the object can occasionally be much brighter than predicted.
    
    The predicted magnitude at the time of Kevin's observation was about 7.3. Kevin
    reported "around mag 6"; however, the above graph shows that the magnitude
    varies about 1 magnitude from the trend line.
    
    Here are recent elements with a name line incorporating the observationally
    determined standard magnitude:
    
    Cosmos 44        3.0  1.0  0.0  6.2 v 7.27
    1 00876U 64053A   04156.74205286  .00000003  00000-0  24291-4 0  9927
    2 00876  65.0598 253.4176 0142515 179.8115 180.3064 14.62133783111681
    
    Cosmos 44 was the first in a series of experimental precursors of Russia's
    Meteor weather satellites. For more information, see:
    
    http://www.astronautix.com/craft/meteor.htm
    
    See also the results of Rainer Kracht's standard magnitude analyses of Russell
    Eberst's observations of Cosmos and Meteor weather satellites:
    
    http://satobs.org/seesat/Jan-1996/0014.html
    
    http://satobs.org/seesat/Jan-1996/0015.html
    
    Ted Molczan
    
    
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