Observations with a time span of over 3 hours by Greg Roberts have determined that the object is very nearly stationary in longitude with a non-zero eccentricity: Unknown 030305 1 90013U 03564A 03068.43047270 0.00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 08 2 90013 6.9789 5.1374 0035383 193.9488 166.3891 1.00270500 07 It seems possible that this object has been here for a long time and that it is now anomalously bright due to specular reflection as the sun goes near the equator. If so, it may fade over the next few weeks. One PanAmSat (the westernmost of the three) was observed by Ed with his unaided eyes (mag 4) on Saturday evening some 20 minutes before shadow entry. As we watched through the telescope, that one faded rather quickly and the other two brightened until the original object was the faintest (about magnitude 8) and the set of three matched what we observed Friday evening just before shadow entry. But 90013 was bright for over three hours, not just 20 minutes. Some of the other objects (Galaxy 11, XM-1) seem to be bright (mag 8 - 9) for many hours during flaring geosync season. Solar panels with "concentrators" to give this effect with two or more reflections? Mike McCants ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Mar 10 2003 - 12:23:03 EST