geosat 91- 46 A = 21533 = gorizont 23
Kurt Jonckheere (kjonckheere@unicall.be)
Tue, 16 Dec 1997 22:55:05 GMT
hello,
two weeks ago, I bought a 8 inch dobsonian, mainly for observing highly
eccentric and geostationary satellites.
One of the most interesting geo'stationary' satellites which is visible
over Europe for the moment is 91- 46 A = 21533 = Gorizont 23.
As already mentioned earlier here (and see below),
this one is flashing with a period of about 51 seconds,
but this period is decreasing !
As Gorizont 23 is a bit further away than geostationary, it is slowly
moving Westwards around the globe and makes one round in about 72 days.
It will be visible over Europe for the next week or so, meaning that
it will become above the horizon for our American friends from New year
on.
Unfortenately due to bad wheather, I wasn't able to make observations
yet. This evening finally the sky cleared out, with freezing temperatures
and an icy wind....
At 17h17m59s, the first flash of a sat was seen through my new scope !
The maxima were about mag +5. I measured 2356.1 seconds for 46 periods,
giving a flashing period of ( 51.220 +- 0.004 ) seconds.
One hour later, around 19h17m, I observed it again for some minutes, but
it was a lot fainter, around mag +8.5, and flashing with half of the 51.2
period. Seems that the surface causing the brighter flashes wasn't
alligned perfectly anymore...
PPAS data :
91- 46 A 94-10-01 JHR 3 72 mg12-13Fl@6.5,day unknown
91- 46 A 97-05-07 21:16:05 RO 5 53.47 +/-0.03 FLASH MAG 5
91- 46 A 97-05-08 22:01:27.1 RK 0.1 44 53.474 mag +5->inv
91- 46 A 97-05-09 23:26:46.0 KJ 0.2 84 53.456 mag +5->inv
91- 46 A 97-05-18 5:05:32.8 MM 0.1 137 53.442 mag 5-inv
91- 46 A 97-05-26 04:59:53 RS 587.0 1.0 11 53.36 max mag +5 tp 5.5
91- 46 A 97-05-27 04:18.8 RGL 533.7 0.2 10 53.37
91- 46 A 97-05-29 05:57:11 RS 800.6 0.5 15 53.37 max mag +5 tp 5.5
91- 46 A 97-06-01 04:15 EC 0.5 30 53.40 T = 1602.1, mag max +5
91- 46 A 97-08-03 05:01 JHR 220 0.5 4 53 Mg6->9, az160, el38
91- 46 A 97-08-03 05:25 JHR 300 1 fl mg9, then none seen
91- 46 A 97-08-07 04:17:52.4 MM 119 52.870 T=6291.5s
91- 46 A 97-09-22 21:25:47.9 KJ 840.7 0.2 16 52.54 mag +5
91- 46 A 97-12-16 17:58:06.8 KJ 0.2 46 51.220 T=2356.1s, mag +5, later+8
A number of high accuracy periods have been obtained during the last half
year which clearly shows the continuing acceleration of the payload.
I hope to see a lot of higher objects within the next time.
Greetings,
Kurt J