> Though Rob is an expert I tend to disagree. Bjorn is being kind here -- I'm definitely out of practice! ;-) > My image shows the track of 76-4A inclined 3.9 degrees to the > declination grid (+10 runs just below the glint) The scale > of UNID_314.gif overlaid on iridium_flare_xga_ov.gif is 1.96 > degrees (118') over the 805 pixel vertical. I didn't bother to rotate images and do a slope comparison since I thought the match looked reasonably close in time, location and slope. However, now that I've done so I see that Bjorn is right -- the inclination is off by a couple degrees. While this doesn't seem like a lot, it is enough to rule out 76-4A as a match. Symphonie 2 was on a parallel track, so it's not a good match for the same reasons. Ekran 8 and OPS 9442 were closer to the correct location in cross track (and on more nearly east-west trajectories), but their intrack positions are poor and the slopes are actually too far the other way (too horizontal). Nearby Kiku 2 (ETS 2) looks to be close to the correct slope, but shifted well to the east. Bottom line is that none of these is a solid match. Two possibilities to consider: Are the observer coordinates correct and/or can they be provided to greater accuracy? Are the reported UTC date and time absolutely certain? Finally, answering Richard's questions: "So Bjorn, you say it is 76-4A? And Rob, you say it is #8585 right?" No, #8585 is the same as 76-4A. Bjorn didn't identify an alternate candidate (nor can I). It remains an unknown unless the location, date or time were in error. > We are all pretty sure it is a LEO because of the EW travel, right? No -- I'm very confident that it is a *GEO* because of the EW travel. Could be a glint from a small piece of debris near GEO that isn't in the catalog. By measuring the RA/Dec of two positions in the track and assuming a GEO orbit, I bet Ted Molczan could generate you a search orbit. But you'd need to reacquire it soon in order not to lose it. If successful, it might very well be the dimmest object ever discovered by an amateur! --Rob ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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