high inclination retrograde?

From: John Holtz via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2015 22:55:25 -0400
Hi everyone,

Several of us saw an object this weekend that looked like a satellite, but
it seems like it should not have been one! I'll give some details below, but
in short, it looked like it was in an ISS-type orbit (50-60 degree
inclination) EXCEPT that this object was travelling in the opposite
direction (making it like a 120-130 inclination orbit). I used the latest
elements from Space Track in the program Heavensat, but I did not find
anything that came close. Any idea what it was?

Observing location: Pittsburgh PA USA (40.6 N, 79.8 W)
Date and time: June 7 2015, 2:30 UT
Rough path: below Lyra (33 degrees elevation, 78 deg azimuth = 18h 52 m RA,
28 deg 48' decl) to just east of Corvus (24 deg elevation, 198 deg azimuth =
12h 58 m RA, -22 deg 50' decl) plus or minus 5 degrees
Magnitude: 3, steady brightness
Speed: low earth orbit (300-600 miles?)


P.S. I've been an observer for many, many years but not very active for the
past few years. I am starting to get back into the swing of things, and I'm
glad to see so many familiar names on the Seesat list now that I have
re-joined.


John Holtz
"Those who never lookup avoid the cow manure, but that is all they every
see"


_______________________________________________
Seesat-l mailing list
http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
Received on Mon Jun 08 2015 - 21:56:09 UTC

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Wed Jun 10 2015 - 05:10:00 UTC