96-054 B Seen, 16 Mar 97
Ron Lee (ronlee@pcisys.net)
Sat, 15 Mar 1997 21:01:07 -0700 (MST)
Centaur r 3585 x 96 km
1 24316U 96054B 97075.13784710 1.24770758 32224+0 36935-2 0 90800
2 24316 25.1974 86.0086 2122610 272.4129 63.6280 11.65302252 9040
Seen at 03:31:51.0 UT at RA 8:25.5 (H:M.M), DEC -22:20 (D:M) (J2000)
on 16 Mar 97. mag about 9, steady during short period seen.
The revised elset above provided by Alan Pickup predicted a declination of
-21:38 at 03:33:37 UT for that RA (Right Ascension) using skymap.
(approximations used)
Thus it was about 1.75 minutes early and 0.7 deg south of predicted point.
However, as Alan mentioned, it was south about where it should have been
for the amount it was early (see method used below).
Alan's (initial) and Bjoern's elsets both showed arrival about 0325-
0326 UT farther south. Alan's revised elset place it north and 7 minutes
later. I plotted all three and approximated intermediate paths for the
times between 0326 and 0333 UT. The telescope was slowly moved
northward as time progressed until the rocket body showed up!!!
Great job Alan, Bjoern and Mike McCants. This is not a reentry but it
is the closest obs yet to a reentry for me.
Ron Lee
104.5614 W, 38.9478 N, 2073 m, UT-7 or MST