Re: only two out of three

From: Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Date: Fri Jun 24 2005 - 15:17:23 EDT

  • Next message: satcom: "AM 3 away.........."

    Thanks to those who replied several days ago to my report of one
    of the NOSS 2-3 objects being invisible when the other two were
    easy to see.  Since then, including last night (June 24 UTC) 
    with haze and moonlight, all three of them were visible without 
    binoculars for a minute or two.
    
    It's good to see good old Superbird A (89-041A, 20040) -- every
    night for a week or more now.  And now that the Moon is getting 
    out of the way and Superbird is getting higher in the sky, it's 
    a good time for anyone who hasn't seen it to try.  It's been 
    doing its thing near nu of Serpens Cauda (about 17:20, -12.3); 
    last night about 3:05-10 UTC (10:05-10 PM local time) from here.
    
    Recently we've seen a number of bright satellite flares, and I
    wonder how interested anyone is in knowing about them.  Almost
    any payload can do that, but it does seem to me that I see more
    of them around our summer solstice (plus or minus a month or so).  
    One "hotspot" is around the Big Dipper (UMa), with sunsynch 
    earth-observing payloads doing them.  But there have been bright
    flares in the south, southeast, and northeast also.
    
    Last night there was a prediction for Cosmos 807 Rk (76-022B,
    08745) low in the west at twilight, but I was not able to see 
    it.  Its orbital height was under 224 km (140 miles), so it must
    be nearing re-entry.
    
    Cosmos 1 comment.  Even though, if its launch had been nominal, 
    I would not have expected to see Cosmos 1 in twilight with my 
    8x42, and even though by the time of the pass I knew that it 
    seemed not to have made it to the expected orbit, I tried to 
    see it the evening of the launch and appreciate the opportunity 
    (preliminary elements, Heavens-Above.com pass predictions, etc.).  
    I know it's been a bitter disappointment to the folks who've 
    worked on the mission, and I hope there's better luck in the 
    future.  
    
    Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA
    
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