Re: New Geosync flasher discovered by Ed Cannon
Mike McCants (mikem@freeside.fc.net)
Thu, 2 Apr 1998 07:12:46 -0600 (CST)
On Tuesday evening, Ed Cannon and I watched the new
geosync flasher for about an hour and a half. After it
stopped flashing about 4:30UT on April 1, 1998, it was visible
in the Austin Astronomical Society 12 1/2 inch telescope
varying between magnitude 13.5 and 14.5 at about 200x.
Last night I observed it with my 8 inch. A revised elset is:
Unknown
1 98001U 98 92.03965033 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 07
2 98001 3.8800 59.9469 0001000 78.1064 281.8936 1.00285000 01
It definitely is slightly lower than geosynchronous height
and moving very slowly higher in my southwestern sky as it drifts
slowly eastward.
I believe that it flashes from about 3:45UT until about 4:30UT
as seen from Austin, Tx. Sometimes the flashes are to 6th magnitude,
sometimes to only about 8th magnitude.
Mike McCants
Austin, Tx