As Greg Roberts reported earlier, it appears that PAN has been found, first reported as an optical UNID by Ian Roberts, of South Africa, (no relation to Greg), on Sep 18 UTC, followed-up by Greg on Sep 20 UTC, with radio and optical observations: http://satobs.org/seesat/Sep-2009/0194.html This prompted Peter Wakelin to review an UNID he observed on Sep 16 UTC, which he sent off-list: 990000020180909162041546 01 12224737 -07167 2 5 990000020180909162043186 01 12224877 -07165 2 5 990000020180909162045526 01 12225135 -07164 2 5 990000020180909162052491 01 12225828 -07165 2 5 I could not fit an orbit across all of the observations of Sep 16-20, most likely due to orbital manoeuvres in the interim. Peter's and Ian's observations place the object near 33.5 E on Sep 18, with a mean motion of about 1.0046 rev/d, equivalent to an eastward drift of 0.681 deg/d. However, the fit is not very good, so it had likely manoeuvred in the interim. Ian and Greg's observations place the object near 34.3 E on Sep 20, drifting east 0.39 deg/d: PAN 35747 X 35766 km 1 35815U 09047A 09263.67944237 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 07 2 35815 0.0737 303.5812 0002232 157.7052 177.4162 1.00382354 03 Arc 20090918.88-0920.83 WRMS resid 0.004 totl 0.003 xtrk It could already have been synchronous by the time Greg observed it, in which case it is near 34.5 E, on Sep 20: PAN 35770 X 35804 km 1 35815U 09047A 09263.66978197 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 08 2 35815 0.0694 302.2085 0004036 39.6524 293.4009 1.00274000 06 Arc 20090920.73-0920.83 WRMS resid 0.004 totl 0.003 xtrk Peter hoped to observe it tonight, despite a poor sky, so there may be additional data by morning. It is interesting to note that PAN is near the longitude of AMC-14, a commercial communications satellite, that was stranded in a useless orbit early last year, as the result of a launch mishap. It was quickly purchased from the insurer by the U.S. government, and over a period of many months, it was manoeuvred into a highly inclined orbit, synchronous orbit. Does anyone know which agency of the U.S. Government purchased it, or owns it? I have seen references to DoD, but I am uncertain of their accuracy. Ted Molczan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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