Despite essentially cloudy skies, I took advantage of a hole near eta Peg and saw the very rapidly moving 01-037F = 26897 = "Cosmos 2379 SL-12 debris F". At 23:18.2 UTC (2003 Oct 11) it was seen (in 10x50 binoculars) varying irregularly with a maximum near magnitude 5.0 (corresponding to a quicksat intrinsic magnitude of +7.4 and a SkyMap standard magnitude of 8.6). This is in an eccentric 219.3 minute orbit (approx 141 x 11190 km) and its perigee is at N Latitude 46 deg, so those at mid-northern latitudes can have a look at this very rapid object (at perigee it is moving at about 5.87 miles/sec = 9.44 km/sec). Clear and dark skies! Ed Light N 40.1075, W 074.2312, +24 m ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Oct 11 2003 - 20:25:35 EDT