priroda

richard.keen@filebank.com
Mon, 06 May 96 18:55:38

                                             
 Hi all -
 I posted this last week, but didn't see it on Seesat, so here
goes again....
 
 The satellite ballet continues, with Priroda docked to Mir but
it's booster playing tag with the space station.  Here's a
Quicksat output and my observations of a pass on the evening of
April 26 in North America:

  39.877 105.391 8950. Coal Creek Canyon, CO 2000 14.5  5 F F F T
F
 Apr 27  SatUT   242 1116
 H  M  S Tim Al AziC Dir  Mag Dys F  Hgt Shd  Rng  R A  Dec Name
 2 43 37  .2 44  31C  89 -1.5  12 7  249 184  346 1437 66.3 Mir
 2 46  8  .1 33  32C  89 18.8   2 1  136  66  239 1620 63.4
Priroda Rk(1)
 3  5 14  .4 43 353   57 18.5   2 0  126  29  183  634 84.1
Priroda Rk(2)

 Mir was magnitude -0.5 as it passed by Arcturus; the Proton
booster (= 1996-23B) magnitude 2.0, giving it a Quicksat absolute
magnitude of 3.2.  I saw no hint of Priroda Rk(2) = 1996-23C, but
clouds were creeping in.
 cheers, Rich