Progress M-36 or rocket?
Edward S Light (light@argos.argoscomp.com)
Mon, 6 Oct 1997 08:28:58 -0400 (EDT)
Last night (20:03 EDT Sunday 05 Oct 1997 = 00:03 UTC 06 Oct), my wife and I
THOUGHT we spotted the latest Progress (based on the following early elements:
Progress M-36
1 25002U 97058A 97278.68487629 .00029506 12026-4 10000-4 0 28
2 25002 51.6646 251.2814 0009766 61.7938 298.4084 16.26085049 11
but the object we saw was only visible (in haze, low in the west, with
binoculars) twice when it "flashed" (no terminology comments here, please!)
twice reaching about the 3rd magnitude (like epsilon Boo). However, after
we got the following later TLEs:
Progress M-36
1 25002U 97058A 97278.80778419 .01071985 60477-3 13975-2 0 36
2 25002 51.6560 250.4308 0063616 132.9910 226.5385 16.02272580 30
Progress M-36 Rk
1 25003U 97058B 97278.93070648 .03449105 12082-4 90513-3 0 40
2 25003 51.6435 249.9178 0020918 74.1515 286.4072 16.27045854 44
it looks like we saw the rocket and not the Progress.
(Incidentally, thanks to the Florida weather, we saw a nice pass of STS-86
at 22:50 UTC when it appeared almost as bright as Jupiter; it's a good
thing Atlantis was bright as the sky was still too bright to see anything
other than Jupiter!)
Clear and dark skies!
Ed Light
Lakewood, NJ, USA
N 40.107, W 074.232, Hgt +21m