Re: Decay Alert Cosmos 756 RB (+ LRE + Ir 73 obs)

From: Mir16609@aol.com
Date: Wed Sep 05 2001 - 16:07:38 EDT


In a message dated Wed, 5 Sep 2001  2:47:16 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Harro.Zimmer@t-online.de (Harro Zimmer) writes:

> 1975-076B (#08128) Cosmos 756 RB
> There are two interesting sunlit passes over the USA + Canada around the decay 
> window.
> 
> 09:54 UTC (39.50°N, 72.88°W)  -  09:59 UTC (5540°N, 66.33°W, North Labrador) 
> There is a good visibility (EL about 34°)  from the New York area around 
> 09:55 UTC.

Of regional interest:
In the Baltimore-Washington area Cosmos 756 Rk (if it 
survives) should pass R->L..... 
below Sirius at 5:53:45 EDT (9:53:45 UTC)
below alp-CMi at 5:54:10 EDT (9:54:10 UTC)
above Venus at 5:54:30 EDT (5:54:30 UTC)

With increasing drag the pass may be sooner than
advertised.

Newly launched LRE (26898,01038A) will be moving slowly
R->L under Sirius from 5:40 to 5:50 EDT (9:40 to 9:50
EDT).  Although it looks like it will be near its
perigee of 36,000km, with reflecting mirrors
(hopefully) spinning it may look like EGP.  I haven't
seen any observations reported yet. 

Last evening 2 experienced observers reported an
apparent -2 mag Iridium flare at 1:03 UTC, 5 Sept.  Iridium 73 matched the time, location, and direction of travel. 

Iridflar did not predict the flare but there was a flare
predicted several minutes later by Skymap.  I
researched Iridium 73 and found a January 2001 thread
that described it as a kind of lost child in the
Iridium system - not a spare, not functional by not yet
spinning.  The location of the observers was 39.314N
76.879W (by dead reckoning).  

Cheers,
Don Gardner  39.1799 N, 76.8406 W, 100m ASL
http://hometown.aol.com/mir16609/

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