Telstar 401 flash period acceleration

From: Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Date: Sun Feb 22 2004 - 03:04:21 EST

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    Telstar 401 (22927) -- the flash period accelerated by more 
    than one second in only one week:
    
    93- 77 A 04-02-15 03:30:28   EC 1137.7 0.2  11 103.43 +1.0->inv
    93- 77 A 04-02-19 03:03:13   EC  821.5 0.2   8 102.69 +1.0->inv
    93- 77 A 04-02-22 01:41:10   EC  715.5 0.2   7 102.22 +1.0->inv
    
    The third observation above was on a mostly cloudy night, 
    through mostly thin cirrus, using 8x42 binoculars, but part
    of the time I could see Orion's belt stars, so at least a 
    few of the flashes probably would have been visible without 
    magnification.  
    
    By the way, a fellow SeeSat person sent a link to a very 
    funny article about Telstar 401's failure, and it implies 
    that what we are seeing can't be that satellite:
    
    http://www.ufoinfo.com/roundup/v02/rnd02_05.shtml
    
    Interestingly, SpaceCom has continued to produce orbital
    elements for it for over seven years now.
    
    Here are some other PPAS reports:
    
    Intelsat 4-7 Rk (06797) --
    73- 58 B 04-02-18 02:31:53   EC   66.4 0.2  20  3.32  
    
    Fleetsatcom 4 Rk (12069), seen unexpectedly several minutes
    before the culmination prediction --
    80- 87 B 04-02-19 02:36:21   EC  382.6 0.4  28 13.66  
    
    Double Star 1 (28140), which is spin-stabilized at 15 rpm --
    03- 61 A 04-02-19 03:49:12   EC   40.7 0.2  10  4.07  
    
    The next three nights here look to be cloudy with some rain.
    
    Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA
    
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