I derived the following elements from observations by myself and Paul Gabriel, on 2000 Aug 20 from 09:49 to 11:26 UTC: Lacrosse 4 18.0 4.5 0.0 3.6 v 1 26473U 00047A 00233.47013889 .00001500 00000-0 27904-3 0 05 2 26473 68.0033 32.3325 0020000 224.4988 135.4731 14.64890720 06 Prediction times should be accurate to well within 1 min over the next day or two. Nevertheless, observers would be prudent to allow a bit more of a margin for error. I allowed Elcor to adjust RAAN, mean anomaly and mean motion. I found the eccentricity and argument of perigee by trial and error. I chose to fit the orbit to my single point, and Paul's fourth point, which he judges to be his best. The result is in reasonable agreement with his other three points, plus three appulses that I timed. This orbit was closest to the parking orbit on 2000 Aug 19 at about 23:48 UTC, within line of sight visibility from Diego Garcia. This confirms the time and location I had predicted for the circularization manoeuvre, following the pattern of Lacrosses 2 and 3. Ted Molczan ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Aug 20 2000 - 09:41:08 PDT