iue, etc.
richard.keen@kingsmarket.com
Wed, 25 Mar 98 03:32:40
Here's some observations of high-flying satellites, preceded with the
Highfly predictions:
39.877 105.391 8950. Coal Creek Canyon 2000 17.0 20
1998 Mar 24/25 Tue eve/Wed morn UT
Hr Mn Alt Azi Mag Hgt R A Dec Range
25035 97-68B Centaur 97 68B M 2.5 ELDY 7 M2 0
2 5 65 126 8.6 8765 8 38.6 23.1 9017
Tumbling mag. 10 to 7 with a period of about 1 second.
20040 Superbird A 89 41A M 4.0 ELDY 14 M2 -2
3 5 49 167 12.2 22331 8 46.5 -.1 23154
3 35 50 167 12.1 22331 9 16.6 .1 23146
With my 12" at 105x, magnitude 13 between flashes. I watched the
flashes between 0310-0320; most were to magniutde 4 or 5, with one
particularly bright flash to magniutde 3.5 at 0316 (seen at 1x).
10637 IUE 78 12A 7.5 M 3.5 ELDY 21 M2 -2
4 50 80 109 11.1 18691 10 47.1 35.6 18745
5 20 75 102 11.1 18841 11 39.8 35.2 18951
The neatest catch of the night - IUE = International Ultraviolet
Explorer. Observed from 0450-0516 with the 12-inch at 105x. Mag.
13.5, flashing to mag. 11 or 11.5 with an interesting cycle: 3 flashes
at approximately 1.1 second intervals, then skip the 4th flash, then 3
more flashes, etc. I timed 14 of these cycles (flash-flash-flash-no
flash) in 60 sec., yielding a 4.3 second cycle, or a period of 1.1
seconds between individual flashes (2.2 seconds when it skips the
flash). I would imagine that this object is four-sided with low
reflectivity on one side for some reason, and is rotating once every
4.3 seconds.
Cheers, Rich Keen
Coal Creek