Acceleration Report - Next PPAS Update

Kurt Jonckheere (kjonckheere@unicall.be)
Sun, 17 Nov 1996 23:08:55 +0100

92-  8 B = 21876 had a jump in Mean Motion last week and is accelerating!

------------

I intend to create the next ppas-update Wednesday.  So if you 
haven't send your observations yet, please send them preferrable 
in the correct format to obs@physics.ox.ac.uk at last Wednesday
morning.

------------

I just checked the latest molczan two-line elements and found that
there was a jump in Mean Motion last week for the 92-  8 B = 21876

As a coincidence I observed this rocket last Friday with a period of
about 12.8 second, meaning that the period has decreased !

All observers should focus on this object !
Who checks if the period is still going down ? How long will it 
continue to accelerate ?

Observations of the last months:

92-  8 B 96-06-05 22:53:41   LB   71.2 0.2   6 11.87  FF, mag 4->inv
92-  8 B 96-06-07 22:02:33   LB   58.5 0.2  10  5.85  FF, mag 5->inv
92-  8 B 96-06-15 22:16      TC   74.2 0.3   6 12.4   FF,; mag +5
92-  8 B 96-06-15 22:17      KJ  222.9 0.3  18 12.38  ssm
92-  8 B 96-08-22 02:28:41.0 RE                20
92-  8 B 96-08-26 02:33:35   LB  149.9 0.5  14 10.71  AA, mag 5->inv
92-  8 B 96-09-06 23:22:25   LB   92.2 0.5   6 15.4   AA, mag 4->inv
92-  8 B 96-09-07 01:10:37   LB  310.3 0.1  20 15.51  FF, mag 3->inv
92-  8 B 96-10-16 20:48:20.0 RE                20
92-  8 B 96-10-23 05:07:35   LB  180.3 0.2  10 18.03  FF, mag 4->inv
92-  8 B 96-10-25 17:55:18   LB   74.5 0.2   4 18.6   FF, mag 4->inv

92-  8 B 96-11-15 17:05      KJ  179.0 0.4  14 12.79

orbital elements :
21876
1 21876U 92008B   96318.51604561  .00000752  00000-0  77540-3 0  7660
2 21876  82.9208 303.0601 0035951 130.7979 229.6311 13.74493813237703

I will submit more about the changes in orbital elements for this 
acceleration within th next days.

Happy observing !

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Kurt Jonckheere (kjonckheere@unicall.be)   51.2 N  2.9 E 
    observations collector for the Belgian Working Group Satellites: 
Send your observations of flashing satellites, preferrably in the correct
     PPAS format to obs@physics.oxford.ac.uk or obs@physics.ox.ac.uk
                  "What have we found ?"      Pink Floyd
-------------------------------------------------------------------------