iue, etc.

richard.keen@kingsmarket.com
Wed, 25 Mar 98 03:32:40

                                  
 Here's some observations of high-flying satellites, preceded with the
Highfly predictions:
 
 39.877 105.391 8950. Coal Creek Canyon 2000 17.0 20
 1998 Mar 24/25 Tue eve/Wed morn UT
 Hr Mn  Alt Azi  Mag    Hgt    R  A    Dec  Range
 
 25035 97-68B Centaur 97 68B  M 2.5 ELDY  7 M2    0
  2  5   65 126  8.6   8765   8 38.6  23.1   9017
 Tumbling mag. 10 to 7 with a period of about 1 second.
 
 20040 Superbird A    89 41A  M 4.0 ELDY 14 M2   -2
  3  5   49 167 12.2  22331   8 46.5   -.1  23154
  3 35   50 167 12.1  22331   9 16.6    .1  23146
 With my 12" at 105x, magnitude 13 between flashes.  I watched the
flashes between 0310-0320; most were to magniutde 4 or 5, with one
particularly bright flash to magniutde 3.5 at 0316 (seen at 1x).
 
 10637 IUE        78 12A  7.5 M 3.5 ELDY 21 M2   -2
  4 50   80 109 11.1  18691  10 47.1  35.6  18745
  5 20   75 102 11.1  18841  11 39.8  35.2  18951
 The neatest catch of the night - IUE = International Ultraviolet
Explorer.  Observed from 0450-0516 with the 12-inch at 105x.  Mag.
13.5, flashing to mag. 11 or 11.5 with an interesting cycle: 3 flashes
at approximately 1.1 second intervals, then skip the 4th flash, then 3
more flashes, etc.  I timed 14 of these cycles (flash-flash-flash-no
flash) in 60 sec., yielding a 4.3 second cycle, or a period of 1.1
seconds between individual flashes (2.2 seconds when it skips the
flash).  I would imagine that this object is four-sided with low
reflectivity on one side for some reason, and is rotating once every
4.3 seconds.
 
 Cheers, Rich Keen
 Coal Creek