27 Flaring GEOs
Ron Lee (ronlee@pcisys.net)
Tue, 12 Oct 1999 14:04:06 -0600
Last evening, (11 Oct 99 local) I set up the 8" telescope to
observe more GEO satellites as they approached Earth shadow.
I ran Skymap and determined the approximate shadow entry at
about RA 1h10m. I ran 1 hour wide Skymap plots using the All-
Search capability with all time intervals set to 1 second.
This gave me single point relative positions of the satellites
in GEO.TLE
I then set up the telescope at RA 00h58m and DEC -5.9deg at
a suitable star. With the clock drive running, it would slowly
pass by GEOs, which would appear to move relative to the stationary
stars.
Stars seen as listed below by the time they pass the target star.
Also included is approximate declination and magnitude. Since the
main objective was to see lots of GEOs, magnitude and declination
were secondary. (Times are UT on 12 Oct 99. Local time is UT-6)
Time is only accurate to a few seconds.
Time (UT) Declination Magnitude ID
2:44:22 -6 9 Unknown
2:46:50 -5.6 5 #23571
2:51:00 xxxx 8 #24819
2:57:40 -5.8 8 #25371
3:08:28 -5.8 6.6 #24916
3:23:17 -5.9 7.5 #25004
3:38:55 -6 7.5 #23536 (Note A)
4:00:30 -6 7.5 #23199
4:08:30 -6 7.5 #24714
4:18:33 -6 7.5 #20872
4:22:43 -6.4 6.5 #23051
4:40:25 -6 6.5 #25516
5:02:44 -6 7.5 #25152 (Note B)
5:06:32 -6 11 #24713 (Note C)
5:16:30 -6.1 11.5 #24936
5:25:14 -6.1 9.2 #23670 (Note D)
5:35 -6.1 12 (Note E)
Post 5:35 See Note F
Note A: Assumed ID. Colocated #25352 not seen
Note B: Entered Earth shadow just after entering field of view
Note C: Already in Earth shadow before entering field of view
Note D: Already in Earth shadow before entering field of view
Note E: Assume I saw #22205. It was already in the penumbra
when it entered the field of view and disappeared completely
before it reached RA 00:58. A close satellite, #25740, was
not seen. It entered eclipse a bit sooner than #22205.
Note F: Missed five scheduled satellites. By now I
am thinking the Earth's shadow is causing a problem. I never
considered it would move westward relative to RA 00:58 and
cause a problem but plotting via Skymap this morning revealed
that is exactly what happened. I then moved the scope west to
attempt to see the DBS cluster. I saw four satellites that I
believe were the DBS satellites (#23192, 23598, and 22930)
plus I saw #21227 (ASC-2). AMSC-1 (#23553) was in that area
but not seen.
There were many satellites to the south. I looked for a few
and saw #23426 about 03:11 UT; #25048 at 04:30:40 UT; #16482
at 04:40:50 UT (flashing with a 27.9 second period); #23171
at 03:46:42 UT and #16650 at 05:38:25 UT (magnitude 12).
Ron Lee
Falcon, CO
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe'
in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org
http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html