ETS 6 for Tuesday night in U.S.

Matson, Robert (ROBERT.D.MATSON@cpmx.saic.com)
Tue, 18 Aug 1998 14:16:16 -0700

Hi All,

Thanks to Jim Varney for pointing out that ETS-6 does go into
shadow during a portion of the flash window I predicted for it
yesterday.  My apologies for not double-checking this myself.
ETS-6 enters shadow at about 4:32:30 UTC 8/19, and does
not reemerge until 5:12 UTC.  At the time of shadow entry,
the predicted flash centerline is very close to its northern
extreme (mentioned in the previous post).  At shadow exit,
the centerline has moved south to an arc passing through
Los Angeles, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Shreveport, Atlanta and
southern South Carolina.

But there is disturbing news.  Tony Beresford, an experienced
observer near Adelaide, Australia, failed to see the predicted
flashes for his location last night.  So the axis we established
for this satellite may have drifted somewhat.  The flash track
was more critical for Tony's location, such that if the flashes
came 40 minutes earlier than predicted, he would have been
washed out by twilight, and if they came 20 minutes late he
would have missed them.  Hopefully someone in the U.S. will
spot the flashes tonite and provide a time window during which
they saw the them, or better yet an estimated time when the
flashes were brightest.  Just wanted to give everyone some
heads-up that this satellite is not (yet) as predictable as
Superbird A due to a lack of observational data.  --Rob