Hi All, Thursday night 9/12 (PDT) was another clear night so I decided to go after Cosmos 2282, ASC 1 and Gorizont 15. The latter two were not visible at 9/13 04:40 UT, but Cosmos 2282 was flashing very dimly at around mag +7 at its brightest. Many flashes were not visible (limiting magnitude +8.3). By 05:00 UT, Cosmos 2282 was still dim but I went ahead and started a timing sequence on it. Still nothing from ASC 1 or Gorizont 15. At ~05:50, I stopped my first timing run on Cosmos 2282 and concentrated on the others. Still nothing. C2282 was flashing much better at this time -- about +5.5, and no invisible flashes. At 06:16 I went ahead and started a second timing run on it. By now the flashes were regularly +5 or brighter, with some to +4. Called it quits at ~06:44. Still nothing from either ASC 1 or G15. My two C2282 timings: From Newport Coast, CA [33.6028 N, 117.8263 W, 200m] COSPAR # 8733 Cosmos 2282 (#23168): 94- 38A 02-09-13 05:49:32.4 RM 3134.23 0.05 151 20.7565 +5.5/+7 --> inv 94- 38A 02-09-13 06:43:51.3 RM 1660.51 0.05 80 20.7564 +4/+5 --> inv The combined measurement is: 94- 38A 02-09-13 06:43:51.3 RM 6434.50 0.05 310 20.7565 +4/+7 --> inv This is a period decrease of 0.01161 seconds in the last day. This means that if the spin up was at a steady rate, the expected hourly decrease would be ~.00048 seconds. This is about the same as my measurement uncertainty, so not much can be gleaned from my two measurements roughly an hour apart. With a 3-hour span, it should be possible to detect whether or not the acceleration matches the expected hourly rate. I'm guessing it won't -- that when the satellite is sunlit the spin-up is much slower than this, and that most of the acceleration occurs during the ~65 minutes of eclipse the satellite experiences each night at this time of year. --Rob ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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