Last night I looked for and believe I found unknown 90907, a probable payload which is in close to a 12-hour orbit. Its flash period is about 5 seconds, with variable maxima, a few of which were as bright as +6.0 I estimate. I was searching with my 10x50 binoculars, handheld. Using Highfly predictions from the following Int2-propagated elements, the object seemed to be running about 5.5 minutes early: 1 90907U 02237.25412428 -.00000723 00000-0 00000+0 0 02 2 90907 63.0902 153.5499 6897454 283.4713 .0000 2.01488208 07 I apologize for the following very rough and improperly formatted positional estimates (UTC time; 2000 RA & Dec): 2002/08/28 04:25:29 22:22, +2.1 2002/08/28 04:29:04 22:28, -0.8 (shadow entry soon after?) Observing site, E. Ney Museum grounds, 30.307N, 97.727W, 150m. The waning gibbous Moon was very low in the sky and behind a building at the time. The weather conditions were pretty good. I don't know how to adjust elements based on observations. To my knowledge, this object may not have been observed in about 15 months. Here are the elements I somehow happened to use as input for the Int2 run: Unknown 990907 4.0 2.0 0.0 6.0 v 8 1 90907U 99550A 01143.56958075-0.00001312 00000-0 -84578+0 0 00 2 90907 62.9886 206.7942 7004970 284.4760 0.0000 2.01441359 03 These, with no drag, are from the mccants.tle file of August 27: Unknown 990907 4.0 2.0 0.0 6.0 v 8 1 90907U 99550A 01143.56958075 0.00000000 00000-0 +00000+0 0 09 2 90907 62.9886 206.7942 7004970 284.4760 0.0000 2.01441359 03 Now, there is definitely a significant element of uncertainty here until more -- and *much* better! -- observations are made, but I did check for any known flashing Centaurs and the like and did not get any other match using the mccants.tle and eccen.tle files. Here's an Int2-generated element set for day 240, using the set above that has non-zero drag: 1 90907U 02240.23200059 -.00000893 00000-0 00000+0 0 07 2 90907 63.0876 153.2103 6897688 283.4622 .0000 2.01483383 03 Muses B M-5 Rk (97-005B, 24721) is making near-perigee, very fast passes over here every third night. Last night it had asymmetrical secondary maxima; PPAS report: 97- 5 B 02-08-28 02:03:46 EC 40.5 0.4 7 5.8 +4.5->inv asymm 2ndary (Brightest maxima may have been +3.5 -- just not sure.) I didn't find Gorizont 23; ended session about midnight; it's pretty low in the sky now, and I was in town (worse city glow low in the SW than BCRC site). 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
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Aug 28 2002 - 04:48:39 EDT