Obs 20 Oct 2k2 Part2

From: Greg Roberts (grr@iafrica.com)
Date: Tue Oct 22 2002 - 10:20:54 EDT

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    Observations made 20 Oct 2002 #2
    -----------------------------------------
    
    CoSaTrak 1, 85mm f/1.6 lens with 0.003 lux CCD surveillance camera.
    Conditions - poor - full moon
    
    Cospar Site #0433  Long 18.5129 E, Lat 33.9406 S, altitude 10 metres
    
    21799 91 076C   0433 P 20021020174434700 17 15 2338490+231830 39 S
    21809 91 076E   0433 P 20021020174513600 17 15 2346420+200657 39 S
    21808 91 076D   0433 P 20021020174615900 17 15 0014370+120738 39 S
    26906 01 040B   0433 P 20021020175541300 17 15 1901480-674219 39 S+043 05
    26906 01 040B   0433 P 20021020175728200 17 15 2136140-425332 39 S+025 05
    26906 01 040B   0433 P 20021020175922400 17 15 2240080-092134 39 S+035 05
    25157 98 007A   0433 P 20021020181812400 17 15 1854480-873620 39 S+075 05
    25157 98 007A   0433 P 20021020181852800 17 15 1853430-745730 39 S+065 05
    25157 98 007A   0433 P 20021020181925600 17 15 1851290-620341 39 S+063 05
    25157 98 007A   0433 P 20021020182031200 17 15 1846350-315429 39 S+063 05
    23233 94 057A   0433 P 20021020182905300 17 15 1730250-563431 39 S+075 05
    23233 94 057A   0433 P 20021020183006100 17 15 1811410-350131 39 S+072 05
    23233 94 057A   0433 P 20021020183048900 17 15 1827000-190923 39 S+072 05
    21798 91 082A   0433 P 20021020184024800 17 15 2057210-764947 39 R+071 05
    21798 91 082A   0433 P 20021020184109300 17 15 2039560-605022 39 R+064 05
    26905 01 040A   0433 P 20021020184435700 17 15 1636090-512546 39 S
    26907 01 040C   0433 P 20021020184435700 17 15 1642170-504826 39 S
    26905 01 040A   0433 P 20021020185105900 17 15 2206270+172305 39 S+050 05
    26907 01 040C   0433 P 20021020185105900 17 15 2206470+183417 39 S+055 05
    
    Notes:
    
    (1) Yesterday I made the statement that GUIDE 8 gave an incorrect
        prediction for an object called 99 750A whilst that from HIGHFLY
        was pretty close.
        In correspondence with Mike McCants and Bill Gray the problem is not
        that simple. BOTH programs are correct - it depends on the data used
        from the orbital elements.
        Mikes program HIGHFLY uses the drag term, whilst Bill Gray in GUIDE 8
        uses the BSTAR term as used in the SGP4 model. It so happened that
        in this case BSTAR was zero. If the drag term for the satellite is
        set to zero then GUIDE8 and HIGHFLY agree.
        The fact that I saw 99 750A and that it matched HIGHFLY's prediction
        pretty well was, according to Mike, "pure luck". Actually I did a
        40 minute orbit plane scan for the satellite and it was just lucky
        that as I ended the scan with no satellite seen, the satellite crept
        into the field of view running 22 minutes late on my predictions
        which were based on GUIDE's prediction.
    
    (2) This concludes all the positional observations for classified
        satellites observed on the 20th October. I have still to identify
        the dozen or so "unknown" satellites seen whilst tracking the
        classified objects . This I hope to do tomorrow.
    
    Cheers
    Greg
    
    
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