Re: Weird Observation. Identificatio needed.
Jim Varney (jamesv@softcom.net)
Fri, 9 Apr 1999 21:18:09 -0700
On 9 Apr 99, cacella@linkexpress.com.br wrote:
> my 10" LX-50 to work. Six bright stars were in sight. Suddenly two
> of then begun to
> move. Yesss . To move. At a rate about 1' per 3 or 4 seconds.
> Two stars orbited the other 4. Yess.. They begun to move in a
> constant cicular speed around the four brighter. After some two
> minutes of observation the brigh
> t stars begun to fade. All set fade in about a minute. After that
> only background stars.
If these are in geosynch orbit, we can roughly assume a slant range of
about 35,000 miles. If they were moving at right angles to you, a movement
of one arc minute is 10 miles. 10 miles in 4 seconds is 9,100 mph. Quite
a feat for a circular manuever.
__________________________________________________________
Jim Varney
Member, Sacramento Valley Astronomical Society
Sacramento Iridiums www.softcom.net/users/jamesv/index.htm