Texas Geosat Flare 3

From: Jeff Umbarger (jumbarger2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Oct 18 2004 - 02:32:55 EDT

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    Ok, got a better process here. Saw 15 geosats, 4 naked
    eye visible around +3 magnitude. The following results
    are from Saturday morning, Oct 16 from watching the
    Clarke Orbit from 2:30 UT to 8:00 UT from Plano, TX,
    USA. The clearest night in years based on EPA air
    quality measurements that I track each night as well
    as cloud cover and water vapor. Getting help from
    Brian (Skwise) and Ed Cannon I was able to download
    some freeware and printed out a star chart of the
    general area of northern Cetus. I picked 5 different
    locations (fixes)that the sats drifted through and
    timed them with a Brookstone WWV radio-corrected
    clock. The five fixes (generally either dim stars that
    sats went in front of or half way points between two
    stars):
    
     Fixes     Right Ascension   Declination
       A        0h 50m 45.7s     -5d 17' 02"
       B        1h 00m 00.2s     -5d 17' 39"
       C        1h 04m 52.2s     -5d 17' 11"
       D        1h 10m 55.3s     -5d 17' 25"
       E        1h 22m 51.7s     -5d 17' 41"
       F        1h 30m 40.2s     -5d 16' 32"
    
    And the timings in UT (hhmmss):
                                Fixes
              A       B       C       D       E       F
    Sat A  044425  045330  045828  050425  051545  052409
    Sat B  051100  052013  052525  053116  054305  055050
    Sat C                                          060922
    Sat D                  061030  061706  062908  063624
    Sat E                                  061934        
    Sat F          063439  063934  064535  065720  070512
    Sat G          065125  065632  070224  071427        
    Sat H  070024  070941  071427  072027  073207  074013
    Sat I                                          073109
    Sat J                                  074030  074838
    Sat K          074547  075030  075639                
    
    Naked-Eye Visible Geosats:
    Sat A Fixes E, F
    Sat B Fixes D, E
    Sat F Fixes D, E, F
    Sat H Fixes E, F
    
    Notes:
    Sat D appeared to be 3 or more satellites with each
    individually glinting - very cool!
    Sat G appeared to be two sats.
    No data for a Sat and a Fix means the sat wasn't
    visible in my 7x50 binocs.
    
    I've given allot of data for each satellite in hopes
    to reduce the ambiguity of their location with that of
    their neighbors. Also you may be able to derive an
    error of measurement from these data.
    
    So what are Sats A - H ???
    
    Jeff Umbarger
    Location Plano TX, USA +33.06946(N), -96.76807(W)
    Central Daylight Time (GMT - 5 ), 700 ft. MSL
    
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