Last night I had my first view of Jason 2 (2008-032A, #33105). I picked it up with my 10x50 binoculars as a reddish mag 5 to mag 6 object at 21:03:07 UTC, 21-JUN-08 above Delta Cyg and followed it for two minutes until it reached the Coathanger Cluster (RA 19:25, Decl. 20:11) at 21:05:15. I then swept back in order to see Jason 1 which was about to follow three minutes later but chanced upon a rapidly blinking and flashing object. Some flashes went up to mag 2 or so. As this object seemed to follow the same path as Jason 2 across the sky (it passed the Coathanger Cluster at 21:07:21 UTC) I first thought it to be the booster (although it would have been unsual to trail the satellite). A later check showed that this object must have been SL-12 DEB 1992-047M, #28578, on a rather different orbit actually - it was just my location which made it look like the two were on identical orbits for a brief period. Incidentally, Spacetrack lists the Delta 2 R/B (2008-032B) in a 2161 km x 4362 km orbit (epoch 172.90700183) which seems to be totally wrong as this booster was supposed to be deorbited after Jason 2 insertion. Gerhard HOLTKAMP Darmstadt, Germany 49.8822N, 8.6558E ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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