2000-056B (#26403) Zenit RB As Alan mentioned yesterday (decay watch Oct 12) there was an observation from an aircraft pilot (altitude 11 000 ft.) over Maseru, Lesotho (29.28°S, 27.29°E) on Oct 11, around 17:50 - 18:00 UTC which could be the decay of the Zenit RB. SPACECOM, Alan and I showed the decay on a more northern position over Central Africa: SPACECOM 17:59 UTC +/- 20 minutes (13.8°S, 29.3°E) Alan: 17:52 UTC -15m /+ 30 m ( 0.0° 23.6°E) Harro: 17:52 UTC +/- 07 minutes (02.13°N, 22.67°E) A small question mark: A careful reconstruction of the final orbit shows for Maseru at 17:59:43 UTC a maximum elevation of only 04.96° (AZ: 68.86°, Range: 856,1 km). The geodectic altitude of the RB for this time was 130.2 km. The observed direction (NNE) is correct but the description of a "fiery" object (3- 5 minutes visible,unsure) suggests a lower altitude on the reentry trajectory. Let us assume 87 km. The elevation of the decayer for the observer over Maseru is then only 2.0° ! It would be of great interest to see a more precise description of the observation. Harro Harro.Zimmer@t-online.de Berlin. Germany ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Oct 13 2000 - 01:15:59 PDT