Earlier this evening while waiting for some satellite passes, I was "sightseeing" through Leo with my [10x50] binoculars when I noticed that there was a very slowly moving object passing near Delta Leo flashing approximately every nine seconds. A very good match for the position and motion of the object was 15698 = 85-037B = Cosmos 1651 (GLONASS). The surprise was that this satellite is in an almost- circular orbit some 19130 km high so I have to conclude that it was flashing specularly ... how else to see something over 21000 km away with the naked eye? Assuming this identification, using the TLEs Cosmos 1651 (GLONASS) 1 15698U 85037B 04063.98414171 -.00000067 00000-0 10000-3 0 2238 2 15698 65.9095 352.0832 0009150 18.2506 341.8002 2.13124553146303 the particulars ... 2004 Mar 14 Alt Azim Phase Max Range U.T.C deg deg deg Magntd km 00:47.6 36.2 092.4 019.0 4-1/2 21232 00:49.6 35.6 093.6 017.7 3 21280 00:50.4 35.4 094.0 017.3 4 21299 Is this object a known flasher? Clear and dark skies! Ed Light Lakewood, NJ, USA N 40.1075, W 074.2312, +24 m (80 ft) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Mar 13 2004 - 21:23:23 EST