Possible New Naked Eye GEO Flasher

Ron Lee (ronlee@pcisys.net)
Sun, 28 Feb 1999 22:29:09 -0700

Per the report below, the object MAY be # 14786.  I was just out
looking for it and in 10 minutes saw nothing.  It may be sensitive
to sun orientation so observations around 730 PM local may reveal
it...possibly naked eye and almost certainly with binoculars.
My attempt was around 1015 PM local.

84023A   
1 14786U 84023A   99053.82663893 -.00000159 +00000-0 +10000-3 0 01918
2 14786 006.0675 058.1766 0020131 306.8315 053.1393 00.97290843018182

Ron Lee


Greetings all,
  My folks in Houston love to sit in their hot-tub at night and watch
the satellites overhead.  They called tonight (28 Feb 99) to tell me
about one they spotted.  They initially saw it about 7:30 CST close to
Orion's belt.  Unlike the usual ones that they spot, this one is moving
very slowly in a generally West to East direction.   It appears to be
tumbling slowly and only shows as a flash of light about every 5
minutes.  They called me after watching 3 flashes and I watched it for
another half hour or so.  Even after a hour or so it had only moved
about the distance of two of Orion's belts (sorry for the non-technical
measurements but I haven't learned the science part of this yet).
Any idea what this one is?
Regards,
Doug Deeds
Fort Worth, TX