Marco It is strange that you did not see the satellite. My prediction is that you should have seen a 70 degree maximum altitude pass at 20:21:44 and then the satellite would have gone into eclipse at 20:22:08 just as it was about to pass over Denmark. I observed the same pass and had a good success. I saw a flare at about 20:19:05 Based on your observations of 2 flares for Lacrosse 5 I calculated that the most likely SAR panel angle was about 33 degrees. If I assume this 33 degree angle then I predict a likely flare from my location at precisely the time I observed it for this latest pass on March 6th. So I think we can conclude that the satellite was flying normally in YVV mode with a SAR panel at about 33 degrees. If it was flying in some strange mode then clearly the flare would not have happened as predicted. Unfortunately I completely failed to resolve it so I can't confirm the flight mode. As to why you didn't see it all I can say is that a simulation shows that the solar panel would have been invisible and that during the high altitude parts of the pass the SAR was not well lit either. However I do predict that the SAR should have been quite well lit earlier in the pass around 20:19:43 when the satellite was at 36 degrees. How early in the pass did you start to track it? Phil ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marco Langbroek" <marco.langbroek@wanadoo.nl> To: "satellite list" <SeeSat-L@satobs.org> Cc: "Ted Molczan" <molczan@rogers.com>; "Mike McCants" <mmccants@ev1.net>; "Pierre Neirink" <pierre-neirinck@wanadoo.fr>; "Scott Campbell" <campbel7@direcway.com>; "Greg Roberts" <grr@iafrica.com>; "Bram Dorreman" <bram.dorreman@skynet.be>; "Bruce MacDonald" <macdonalddevizes@tiscali.co.uk> Sent: Monday, March 06, 2006 8:32 PM Subject: No-show of Lacrosse 5 > > Hi all, > > Indeed, the brightness behaviour of Lacrosse 5 is odd lately. I failed to > see it both visually and with the camera, nothwithstanding a clear sky and > a predicted brightness of +2.1, at the 20:21 UTC near-zenith pass here > just 10 minutes ago. > > I did see and capture the Lacrosse 5 Rk an hour earlier. At around +2 it > was easily visible both on the camera image and with the naked eye > (position measurement report will follow later this evening). > > - Marco > > ----- > Dr Marco Langbroek - SatTrackCam Leiden, Cospar 4353 > Leiden, the Netherlands. 52.15412 N, 4.49081 E (WS84), +0 m ASL > > SatTrackCam: http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek/satcam.html > Station (b)log: http://sattrackcam.blogspot.com > Atom RSS: http://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/atom.xml > e-mail: sattrackcam@wanadoo.nl > ----- > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: > http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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