Re: GPS 2F-4 Centaur spotted from Edinburgh

From: Andy Smith (andy@television.f9.co.uk)
Date: Thu May 16 2013 - 11:41:59 UTC

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    Correction: Apparently that's Cygnus, definately not Ursa Major... I had my
    location a bit wrong on my star chart!
    
    Thanks Russell,
    Andy.
    
    --
    *Andy Smith*
    
    
    
    On 16 May 2013 10:01, Alan Pickup <alan@astrowatch.org> wrote:
    
    > I was with a group from the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh in
    > Roseburn Park in the city last night when we saw a very bright swift
    > object, roughly mag -1 or -2 and steady, on a W to E trajectory that
    > carried it a degree or so S of Arcturus at 21:58 UTC. At the time, the
    > star was 52 degrees high in the SSE.
    >
    > Subsequently, I identified this as the Centaur second stage of the Atlas
    > 5 launch that launched from Cape Canaveral at 21:38. At the time of
    > observation, the Centaur and its GPS 2F-4 payload were coasting in an
    > eccentric transfer orbit for which Space-Track has not published a TLE.
    > Three hours after our observation, the Centaur fired for a second time
    > to circularise the orbit and release its payload.
    >
    > Regards
    > Alan
    >
    > --
    > Alan Pickup /
    > Edinburgh  /
    > Scotland  /
    >
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