Impact on Met 3-1 r?
Ron Dantowitz (ron@dantowitz.com)
Thu, 26 Dec 1996 17:32:34 -0500 (EST)
Hello everyone-
I rarely put out seesat-wide messages... but heres something odd I noticed
on 12/22/96...
12/22/96 the 09:11 UTC pass...
Boston, MA USA
Lat 42.36830 N
Lon-71.07330 W
Alt +6m (ish!)
While tracking Met 3-1 r (#16194 / 85100 B) the satellite was "missing",
despite the elements being only 9 days old (still quite fresh, esp for a
"dead" object). Our tracking telescopes were locked onto the correct
coordinates, but the satellite was TWELVE+ seconds late! (12.2 secs late).
In almost two years of tracking we have only seen this on active sats (ie
Mir, STS, and "dark" sats). I haven't yet checked the element archives, but
has anyone else noticed this? I have found the elements of 99%++ of all
other sats to be quite excellent... this anomoly was unusual, to be sure.
Thoughts: An event on the booster? Perhaps it is not a dead rocket? An
impact? Of course it * could * be an error on my part, but 12 seconds of
time is a HUGE chunk of sky for 3-1 r.
Would like to hear your thoughts on this!
Other notes: Just discovered it is possible to see Mir by moonlight alone.
Last night's 22:37ish UTC pass was great, but after going into shadow, Mir
remained visible for almost 2 minutes by the full moonlight. Mir looked
faint blueish, smokey colored... visible in the 7" and 12" tracking scopes...
Also: Does anyone have any info on Cos 1766? It appears physically larger
than its 6m Molczan # would indicate. It was HUGE.
Look fwd to hearing your thoughts on Met 3-1 r!
-Ron Dantowitz
Museum of Science, Boston