Well, this is interesting. Ed Light wrote: >After the previous postings regarding a bright object >following ISS, I waited a couple of hours hoping more >recent TLEs would clear up any mystery. Unfortunately, >all they did was extend my confusion. Jay Respler wrote: >ISS was about mag -2 to -4. Progress M1-9 just about >as bright as Altair. Very nice seeing them glide along >together. >QUICKSAT output: > > 40.281 74.235 129. JAY RESPLER 1950 29.0 4 F F T T T > *** 2002 Sept 28 Sat evening *** Times are PM EDT *** 1933 6 2 > H M S Tim Azi ElC Dir Mag Dys F Hgt Shd Rng R A Dec Name > ... > 7 57 59 .0 143 85C 271 1.5 0 3 247 105 248 1945 35.6 ISS > 7 58 31 .0 143 86C 271 18.6 0 3 247 104 247 1943 36.4 PROGRESS M1-9 First, I misread the SpaceflightNow story and thought that the new Progress was docking to ISS on Saturday. Second, due to a not too favorable pass, my predictions for the evening did not include the Progress, so that "confirmed" that they had docked! A while ago I generated predictions trying to find what object was trailing ISS, and I got the following -- which look like Progress had already docked with ISS (!): 30.315 97.867 940. BCRC, Austin, Texas 2000 8.0 10 F F T T T *** 2002 Sept 29 Sun morning *** Times are AM UTC *** 1 3 1140 H M S Tim Al Azi C Dir Mag Dys F Hgt Shd Rng EW Phs R A Dec 27531 Progress M1-9 1 28 35 .0 21 323 C 91 21.7 0 3 244 178 579 1.4 121 13 3 55.4 25544 ISS 98 67A 69 -1.5 Intl Space Stn 1 28 35 .0 21 323 C 91 .2 0 3 244 178 579 1.4 121 13 3 55.4 I'm pretty sure that the elements that produced the above predictions were: ISS 20 10 0 0.5 398 x 375 1 25544U 98067A 02271.81083306 .00046362 00000-0 55462-3 0 1966 2 25544 51.6350 252.7150 0017315 311.9377 127.1786 15.60330796220198 Progress M1-9 399 x 375 1 27531U 02045A 02271.66574074 .00044009 00000-0 52708-3 0 207 2 27531 51.6363 253.4362 0017625 311.1822 32.3886 15.60317194 465 So, I wasn't looking for anything following ISS, and while I watched it without binoculars didn't see the Progress behind it by accident. What bad luck! (The pass was pretty low in the NW.) The two latest elements sets I got from OIG a little while ago are: ISS (ZARYA) 1 25544U 98067A 02272.13439256 .00034926 00000-0 41973-3 0 1999 2 25544 51.6345 251.0860 0017451 312.8670 144.9477 15.60341912220241 PROGRESS M1-9 1 27531U 02045A 02272.26351691 .00361332 00000-0 41061-2 0 268 2 27531 51.6424 250.4499 0015352 315.1091 146.5779 15.60457010 560 Is there any official report from the Russians about the maneuvering of the new Progress? My consolation prizes were, among other things, a bright Topex pass and seeing several flaring geosats, including again the two pair (all Panamsats, 23764, 25585, 24916, and 26608) easily visible for a few minutes in my 10x50s. Also, using binoculars I did see the old Progress (27454). Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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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