Last night Mike McCants unexpectedly saw a Telstar 401 (22927, 93-077A) flash of about +2 magnitude, and thereafter we each timed it for a while. Several flashes were easily visible without magnification, even though the sky conditions were not great. Given some odd-even characteristics of the flashes, it seems in spite of seeing bright flashes every couple of minutes for a little while, its flash period is actually twice that. Here's a PPAS report: 93- 77 A 02-08-08 04:03:57 EC 1508.0 0.3 6 251.3 +2.0->inv 2ndaries also Its tumble period has slowed since January, when it appeared to be speeding up: 93- 77 A 02-01-14 03:51:07 EC 1562.2 0.3 13 120.17 +0.5?->inv 93- 77 A 02-01-20 02:12:20 EC 1800.0 0.2 15 120.00 +0.5->inv 93- 77 A 02-04-30 04:35:54.9 EC 996.6 0.5 8 124.6 +2->inv In January it flashed roughly 13 to 16 minutes earlier from night to night. In April I observed it only one night, probably due to unfavorable weather (?). Observations of Telstar 401's bright flashes from other locations are sought! Gorizonts 14 (87-040A, 17969) and 23 (91-046A, 21533) were visible last night with binoculars (10x50). Gorizont 23 was low in the east-southeast, and Gorizont 14 in the west-southwest. PPAS reports: 87- 40 A 02-08-08 04:33:20 EC 790.4 0.3 9 87.83 +4.5->inv 91- 46 A 02-08-08 05:12:44 EC 1677.5 0.3 30 55.92 +5.5->inv I'm less confident in the magnitude of Gorizont 23 (91-046A) because it was down in murky air and also in a lot of city glow. Observing site: 30.315N, 97.866W, 280m. Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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