RE: Sputnik 1 sighting ???

From: Ted Molczan (molczan@rogers.com)
Date: Tue Nov 05 2002 - 18:58:29 EST

  • Next message: paul: "8305PG obs 06nov 01h UT"

    Tristan Cools posted:
    
    > ... a new outhouse built on the spot where Stegemeyer's used 
    > to be now contains a proper plaque designating it as a historic 
    > site. Fairbanks scientists Neil Davis and Neal Brown visited the 
    > landmark off Miller Hill Road and installed the plaque in 
    > mid-October. 
    > 
    > Early on the morning of Oct. 6, 1957, Stegemeyer was in his outhouse 
    > and all was well with the world. The door was open. As he looked 
    > up in the sky, he witnessed the dawn of a new age. 
    > 
    > "Mr. Stegemeyer said he was just sitting there enjoying the 
    > beauty of the stars twinkling in the sky when he saw a strange moving 
    > star come up out of the west," Davis wrote about his neighbor who 
    > lived west of the University of Alaska. "From its speed and 
    > uniform passage across the sky, he knew it could not be an 
    > airplane, a meteor or any other familiar phenomena." 
    > 
    > What Stegemeyer saw that morning was the Sputnik I satellite as it 
    > orbited the Earth.
    
    The following elset of the rocket body was estimated by the late Joel Runes:
    
    Sputnik 1 r     28.0  2.8  0.0  4.1 d
    1 00001U 57001A   57277.80437500  .00301870  00000-0  97395-3 0    18
    2 00001  65.1000 340.3821 0520478  58.0000 306.9536 14.96977024    06
    
    It predicts the following pass, which has the object rising in the west, 
    about 30 min before the start of civil twilight:
    
     6/10/57  01:27 - 06:27 ST   J2000.0  EL > 15  Fairbanks  Alaska
    Sputnik 1 r    57001A       1   Bull =    1    Fairbanks  Alaska
    SGP4  Age =    1.8 d  Unc =   29 s ( 50%) Src = 9
    
      TIME      %I   Mvd    AZ  EL     R.A.       DEC      FE    VANG  RANGE   ALT
    --------    --  ----   ---  --   --------  ---------  ----   ----  -----  -----
    05:57:38    98   2.6   279  15   00:02:51   17:22:41   4.9   0.24    904    289
    05:58:09    98   2.1   273  22   00:38:04   21:26:32   4.7   0.38    702    296
    05:58:29    97   1.7   267  29   01:14:12   24:40:24   4.6   0.54    584    301
    05:58:43    95   1.5   260  35   01:50:02   27:04:22   4.4   0.69    512    305
    05:58:54    92   1.3   252  40   02:26:30   28:45:53   4.3   0.84    464    308
    05:59:03    89   1.2   243  44   03:02:32   29:44:14   4.0   0.96    433    310
    05:59:11    85   1.2   233  48   03:38:53   30:02:31   3.8   1.05    413    312
    05:59:18    80   1.3   222  50   04:13:06   29:43:04   3.5   1.11    402    314
    05:59:25    75   1.4   210  52   04:48:10   28:46:10   3.2   1.14    397    316
    05:59:32    69   1.5   198  52   05:22:34   27:13:22   2.8   1.12    399    318
    05:59:39    63   1.7   186  50   05:54:54   25:11:50   2.5   1.08    409    319
    05:59:46    57   2.0   176  48   06:24:16   22:52:00   2.3   1.00    424    321
    05:59:53    52   2.2   167  45   06:50:15   20:24:24   2.0   0.91    445    323
    06:00:01    47   2.6   159  42   07:15:53   17:37:00   1.9   0.80    476    325
    06:00:10    41   2.9   153  38   07:40:03   14:39:40   1.7   0.69    516    328
    06:00:21    36   3.4   147  33   08:03:58   11:25:46   1.6   0.56    572    331
    06:00:34    31   3.9   141  29   08:26:09   08:10:25   1.5   0.45    645    335
    06:00:51    26   4.5   137  24   08:48:03   04:42:45   1.4   0.34    750    340
    06:01:13    22   5.2   133  19   09:08:34   01:14:07   1.3   0.25    893    346
    06:01:43    19   5.9   129  14   09:28:01  -02:19:05   1.2   0.17   1098    355
    
    Times are local standard time, which was 9 h behind GMT. To the best of my 
    knowledge, Alaska had not yet adopted daylight savings time.
    
    Range and ALTitude are in km.
    
    The western sky would still have been sufficiently dark to easily see the object
    at the predicted magnitude between 1 and 2.
    
    Ted Molczan
    
    
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