Re: NOAA 15, ETS 6, Cosmos 2228, SPOT 3?, Irid 11A
Björn Gimle (b_gimle@algonet.se)
Fri, 16 Apr 1999 22:47:16 +0200
On 7 januari 1999 11:22, Ed Cannon wrote:
>...
>Now, has anyone in the southern hemisphere seen anything
>recently from SPOT 3 (22823, 93-61A)? A few months ago on
>most passes over here it did great flashes, some of them
>being some of the brightest I've seen -- rivals of good
>Iridium flares in magnitude. The flashes were seen as it
...
Well, I'm not in the southern hemisphere, and it's not January,
but I accidentally found it flashing wildly and irregularly.
Average period 3.5 seconds, but some intervals around 2 sec.
Best flash about -3m at 19:24:24 UT, next good one (+0m?)
at 19:24:40
Spot 3 4.7 1.8 1.8 6.0 d
1 22823U 93061A 99102.13589910 -.00000043 +00000-0 +00000-0 0 09441
2 22823 098.6445 169.6933 0014589 324.1042 035.9152 14.17164048287003
Quite a lot of clouds, so I missed USA 129, Landsat 7+UNK, NOSS SSU...
But USA 86 flared through thin clouds to mag +1 at 19:45:27 UT, above
right from Capella, roughly where I saw a similar flare on Apr.14, but
the -3m flare above theta Aur was not repeated today.
Clouds also ruined my orbit 1 try for Landsat 7. I got Ron's launch
confirmation before going out, but only Cassiopeia, where it was
to descend, was occasionally visible.
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