03054A has raised its orbit slightly; 03054C has lowered its orbit slightly. Since their observational arcs are short, I allowed only the mean anomaly and mean motion to vary in the orbit determination. All other elements are as propagated from my epoch 03349.7 elsets. Also, on 2003 Dec 17 UTC, Russell Eberst observed the Centaur running 0.8 s to 0.9 s early on consecutive passes, relative the epoch 03349.74 elements, so its orbital altitude appears to have decreased slightly. Presumably another propellant leak. When I try to fit an orbit, I get a higher one, but that probably is not significant, given there are only two points, one rev apart, so for now, I will continue to use the epoch 03349.74 elements, and expect the object to be running early. Observation arc 2003 Dec 16.81 - 17.86 UTC: NOSS 3-2 (A) 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.9 v 1 28095U 03054A 03351.83543636 .00000058 00000-0 10000-3 0 06 2 28095 63.4238 264.5075 0128089 179.8254 180.2837 13.40616256 08 WRMS residuals = 0.021 deg Observation arc 2003 Dec 16.81 - 17.86 UTC: NOSS 3-2 (C) 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.9 v 1 28097U 03054C 03351.83612717 .00000058 00000-0 10000-3 0 05 2 28097 63.4236 264.5463 0128181 180.3407 179.7551 13.40596981 07 WRMS residuals = 0.032 deg There is a definite slim chance that I will have a sufficiently clear sky to observe these objects tonight. Ted Molczan ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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