Breakup of 21734
MALEY, PAUL D. (paul.d.maley1@jsc.nasa.gov)
Wed, 20 Oct 1999 07:34:56 -0500
I did not have a chance to observe pieces or the parent from the breakup of
21734 on October 9
until this morning. Under 5th magnitude visual skies which is excellent for
Houston, I attempted observation of 22 pieces with my 150mm binoculars which
can detect objects to +11. I saw none of them under excellent observing
conditions. This is to be expected since the altitude of the debris is
around 1600 to 2000 km and while Vladimir's message described them as 'large
fragments', they are typically too small to be seen at those ranges.
I did observe two successive passes of the parent, 21734 at 0928 and 1125UT
on 20 October. The first pass was toward the sun and the object was +7.7
magnitude at a range of 2435 km. I could see what appeared to be 4 to 6 fast
minor variations per second during the two minutes that I tracked it. On the
next pass which was anti-sun, the object was +6 magnitude at a range of 1884
km and I could not detect any variation.
Paul
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