SATOBS ML (4353), 4 May 2011 (Pt. I): 4th May obs of 3 May UNID II

From: Marco Langbroek (marco.langbroek@wanadoo.nl)
Date: Thu May 05 2011 - 10:27:08 UTC

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    Obs SatTrackCam Leiden (Cospar 4353):
    
    00000 00 000Y   4353 P 20110504210402300 17 75 1509353-069840 56
    00000 00 000Y   4353 P 20110504210732300 17 75 1513050-069890 56
    00000 00 000Y   4353 P 20110504211302300 17 75 1518343-069970 56
    
    Galaxy 27:
    25922 99 052A   4353 P 20110504210402300 17 75 1508163-072500 56
    Intelsat 12:
    26590 00 068A   4353 P 20110504210402300 17 75 1507197-072920 56
    
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Canon EOS 450D + Carl Zeiss Sonnar MC 2.8/180, 800 ISO  + ASTRORECORD 
    astrometric software.
    What these numbers mean: http://www.satobs.org/position/IODformat.html
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    
    Conditions were less than perfect (thin haze in the sky), but I managed to 
    recover one of the two May 3rd geostationary UNID's.
    
    While in terms of longitude it is close to the UNID-I of May 3rd, I actually 
    believe it is UNID-II (the flaring one), drifted more westward. The brightness 
    behaviour is similar (brightly flaring with a ~1 minute period, see table 
    below), and the declination is slowly changing (UNID-I was stable in declination 
    on May 3rd).
    
    I could not positively identify UNID-I on my images: this was very likely due to 
    the poor observing conditions. I have Intelsat 12 and Galaxy 27 on my images 
    only intermittently, and at the edge of detection (see two positions above, from 
    an image that shows them best).
    
    I took a series of images between 21:03:00 and 21:14:30 UTC (May 4th), in a semi 
    30 second interval. The UNID is flashing with a semi 1 minute period, meaning it 
    is typically present on image 1, absent on image 2, present on image 1 etc.
    
    Images where it is visible (with some brightness variation: sometimes very 
    bright, sometimes fainter):
    
    from - to (UTC, May 4th)
    ---------------------------
    21:03:02.30 - 21:03:12.35
    21:04:02.30 - 21:04:12.35  - very bright
    21:05:02.30 - 21:05:12.35
    21:07:32.30 - 21:07:42.35
    21:08:02.30 - 21:08:12.35
    21:08:32.30 - 21:08:42.35  - very bright
    21:11:02.30 - 21:11:12.35
    21:12:02.30 - 21:12:12.35
    21:13:02.30 - 21:13:12.35  - very bright
    21:14:02.30 - 21:14:12.35  - very bright
    
    - Marco
    
    
    -----
    Dr Marco Langbroek  -  SatTrackCam Leiden, the Netherlands.
    e-mail: sattrackcam@wanadoo.nl
    
    Cospar 4353 (Leiden):   52.15412 N, 4.49081 E (WGS84), +0 m ASL
    Cospar 4354 (De Wilck): 52.11685 N, 4.56016 E (WGS84), -2 m ASL
    SatTrackCam: http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek/satcam.html
    Station (b)log: http://sattrackcam.blogspot.com
    -----
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