Possible LM 2C/SD - Iridium Obs, 2 May 98
Ron Lee (ronlee@pcisys.net)
Sat, 02 May 1998 04:59:13 -0600
I had a wonderful 5-6 degree pass this morning at 09:25 UT.
Due to the low elevation and laziness, I decide to forego using
my telescope and planned on just trying to observe the rocket.
AS I was looking several minutes early, I realized that I would
be observing about 70 minutes after launch. Even if the payloads
were deployed, the lower orbit rocket would not have had much
time to be off much time-wise compared to my Iridium elset.
About 30 seconds after the appointed time, I did see and object
about the right place in the right direction. No noticeable
brightness fluctuation and somewhat dim in my 7x50 binoculars.
Not knowing if the launch even occurred (it has as I later called the
launch hotline), I decided to run Skymap to see if any other objects
were in the area. #4390, Cosmos 343, was a reasonable match so at
this time I have to label my obs as questionable. Will have to update
Alldat.tle and see if I can reject Cosmos 343 on the basis of time
or possibly magnitude.
Ron Lee