Tony Beresford wrote: > I am trying to ID a satellite picked up by John Vetter from > the Mugdee Observatory ( 32.57S, 149.58 E ) near Siding Spring obs > It was observed for 36 minutes tumbling at 2.5 flashes per second > with a maximum brightness of mag 8. > The only suspect I get is intel602 ., 89 87A 20315. > This satellite is geosynchronous and inclined ( See Heans-above). > Does anybody on the list have definite status on this object? > Even if its a spinning comsat the rotation rate should > be around 5 rev/minute. Intelsat 602 is a member of the Intelsat VI series, which are spin stabilized by means of a spun section, designed to rotate at 30 RPM. The 2nd generation SDS were built on the same bus (Hughes HS-389), and they have been observed to flash with a period between about 1 s and 1.5 s, but that is quite a bit slower than the 0.4 s of the UNID. However, a sensitive detector may detect flashes from various small structures around the circumference of the satellite, resulting in a much faster period than implied by the satellite's rate of rotation. If there is any doubt as to the ID, I would be pleased to review the observational data. Ted Molczan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Aug 27 2009 - 13:25:44 UTC