During an observation session on 27-Sep-2002, I spotted and ID'ed 3
unpredicted (by Heaven's Above) sats.
First, while watching GPS 2-04 Rocket1 (1994-066-B) pass south to north
Alpha Gruis at 09:05:05 UTC, I spotted another sat traveling north to
south. Saw it only for a few seconds but it appeared to flare to about
4.0 in that time. Using SatHunt + alldat.tle, I ID'ed this as OPS 3367A (1997-074-A).
Second was spotted while watching Cosmos 1833 Rocket pass west of
Altair. I saw a flasher moving from the northwest, heading south of
Altair at 09:26:30. It flashed brightly (Mag 1-2) every 10 seconds or
so. This took a while to ID, but the best fit was Intelsat 5-2 Rocket
(2000-006-B). It's orbit is 11,000km by 345Km and was obviously seen at
its perigee.
Last was a bright (Mag 3.5) sat passing west to east, passing north of
Alpha Gruis at 09:37:17. Easily ID'ed as OAO 1 Rocket (1966-031-B), but
much brighter than H-A's predicted 5.6.
This was the first time that I had seen three unpredicted sats in one
night.
32.9718S, 151.6343E, 30m, UTC +10.
--
Larry Brash
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Sep 28 2002 - 20:05:52 EDT