Ed Cannon wrote: > I first learned about their behavior from Mike McCants, and in > quite a few observations have concluded that the wild sparkling > that they do is probably predictable, like a "flare" -- but one > produced by a (rapidly) rotating multifaceted reflector. <snip> > Mike pointed out to me long ago, and > it still seems fully accurate, that they glitter or sparkle most > brightly at least when south of us, after culmination. _______________________________________________ More likely the "sparkle" or "glitter" is from thermal insulation foil covered with Kapton (yellow-gold in color). I have seen USA 32 and 81 many times and believe the glitter phenomenon is from this material as the satellite slowly rotates. The glittering frequency is too quick and far too numerous to be caused by even a few dozen flat surfaces -- it has to be into the hundreds of surfaces flashing over the course of 5 to 10 seconds. My speculation is that only a crinkled surface like Kapton-covered foil can produce such an effect. (Can anyone confirm this hypothesis, however?) Many satellites have this material used as insulation/thermal management. See: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/titan/b28/ for an image of this material on a Lacrosse satellite, which I have seen produce (albeit rarely) the same effect on these vehicles. I can confirm, per Ed's and Mike's note, the glittering is MUCH more pronounced when the vehicle is more fully illuminated (smaller phase-angle). RICK BALDRIDGE Campbell, CA USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri May 25 2001 - 21:21:59 PDT