Observations of satellites with (more or less) periodic brightness variations. All observations by 7 x 50 binoculars. The reported times are those of the last timed maximum. Naked eye observation. Sky was good. Near Full Moon so that observations closer than about 30 degrees from this bright light were not performed. yy-nnncc yy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.s ooo sss.s s.s nnn ff.fff comments 73- 54 A 07-11-23 18:42:03.3 BD 19.8 0.3 1 19.8 +5->inv; F'a'; 5) 79- 57 A 07-11-23 17:36:14.7 BD 132.4 0.2 14 9.46 a'a'F'; +3->inv; 2) 83- 22 A 07-11-23 18:29:00.4 BD 93.4 0.4 8 11.7 +3.5->inv; 4) 87- 60 A 07-11-23 17:24:31.4 BD 54.9 0.5 4 13.7 A; +4.5->? 94- 68 A 07-11-23 16:44:50 BD 34 34 a; +4.3->inv; 7) 96- 71 B 07-11-23 16:50:25.3 BD 115.8 0.2 10 11.6 A; +5->inv 99- 57 A 07-11-23 18:59:58.2 BD 101.9 0.2 5 20.4 A'A'A'_A; +5->inv; 6) 00- 33 D 07-11-23 18:25:22.7 BD 66.3 0.2 14 4.74 A; +5.5->inv 07- 27 B 07-11-23 17:59:51.1 BD 316.5 0.5 6 52.7 A; ssm; +1.9->inv; 3) 07- 29 B 07-11-23 17:16:43.5 BD 78.2 0.2 60 1.304 A; +2.5->inv 07- 38 B 07-11-23 16:53:51.2 BD 30.9 0.2 20 1.54 A; +5->inv 07- 53 B 07-11-23 17:15:07.7 BD 81.8 0.2 43 1.90 A=>F; +2.5->inv; 1) 1) 2007-053B, 32284, SAR Lupe 3 rocket A=>F means photometric appearance evolved from wavy to rather flashy. 2) 1979-057A, 11416, NOAA 6 displayed an AAF pattern with two breaks in the series (?). I derived a periode by determining the time between two flashy maxima. The maxima are in the following data, in which "a" means "round" maximum and "f" means flashy maximum: 7.47 a 1.92 f; sum = 9.39 2.87 a 4.50 a 2.29 f; sum = 9.66 2.49 a 4.75 a 2.32 f; sum = 9.56 2.65 a 4.64 a => phase change? 2.27 a 2.18 a 4.75 f; sum = 9.20 2.78 a 2.08 a 2.31 a 2.26 f; sum = 9.43 2.64 a 2.12 a 2.40 a 2.23 f; sum = 9.39 2.45 a 2.36 a 2.41 a 2.14 F; sum = 9.36; flash had magn. +3 4.83 => phase change? 4.51 a 4.89 a; sum = 9.40 4.75 a 4.79 a; sum = 9.54 1.63 f 3.10 a 4.65 ?; sum = 9.38 4.75 a 4.75 f; sum = 9.50 4.85 a 2.54 a 2.11 f; sum = 9.50 4.68 a 2.46 a 2.30 f; sum = 9.44 I am not an analyst, so my notes may be not very scientific. 3) 2007-027B, 31701, USA 194 (aka NOSS 3-4) rocket [Centaur] At last a long arc with almost zenithal culmination. The maxima were easy this times, as there was a short flash on top of the wave. May be this flash was not exactly on the maximum brightness within a period. Is it amazing that the intervals increased with times? Timings are: 46.58 50.61 52.69 54.78 55.33 56.46 4) 1983-022A, 13923, NOAA 8 Not as nice as its mate NOAA 6. I tried to determine a combined but rather constant period and found following: f 3.15 f 5.78 a 2.67 sum = 11.60 f 3.00 f 6.12 a 2.62 sum = 11.74 f 3.10 f 3.56 a 2.38 a 2.62 sum = 11.66 a 3.07 a 3.40 a 3.20 m 1.99 sum = 11.66 a 2.91 a 3.43 ? 5.40 sum = 11.74 m 2.85 f 3.52 a 5.34 sum = 11.71 a 2.96 => phase change? f 3.16 f 3.31 a 5.17 sum = 11.64 a 3.52 a 2.39 a 5.71 sum = 11.62 See further the note at the end of 2) 5) 1973-054A, 06787, OPS 8364 (aka DMSP 4) Together with a not timed 1st interval I get the timings: f ~14 f 6.23 sum = ~20 f 13.80 a 6.00 sum = 19.80 6) 1999-057A, 25940, CBERS 1 This object displayed 4 flashes at the beginning, later one flash disappeared or was very faint. I presume the real period is the sum of the 4 intervals, later three: two short and one long: 5.33 4.94 5.81 4.17 sum = 20.25 5.13 5.31 9.92 sum = 20.36 5.14 5.13 10.19 sum = 20.46 5.29 5.20 9.82 sum = 20.31 5.12 5.11 10.31 sum 20.54 Before these timings I had: 4.93 5.42 4.79 (so missing the 1st max) After these timings I had: 4.67 5.43 (so missing the long interval) 7) 1994-068A, 23323, IRS P2 is a difficult flasher, when the flashes appear so now and then and you don't know when. I found the first flash rather late during the transit and was happy to see another one. The URL explaining the format of PPAS observations : http://www.satobs.org/tumble/flashpm.html#PPASformat Site 4160: 51.27931 N, 5.47683 E (WGS84), 35 m Bram Dorreman ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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