High Altitude Unknown

From: Greg Roberts (grr@iafrica.com)
Date: Sun Jan 05 2003 - 08:55:27 EST

  • Next message: Tony Beresford: "Jan 05 observation"

    Observations made 04 Jan 2003
    -------------------------------
    
    CoSaTrak 1, 85mm f/1.6 lens with 0.003 lux CCD surveillance camera.
              + 25mm f/1.4 lens with 0.01 lux surveillance camera
    
    Conditions - good - Seeing good
    
    Cospar Site #0433  Long 18.5129 E, Lat 33.9406 S, altitude 10 metres
    
    Whilst hunting for "Unknowns" I found the following object flashing
    every 2.437 seconds, from a maximum magnitude of about +8.0 to invisible.
    I measured the first and the last flashes seen and two in between and get
    the following - it was moving very slowly and there is some obvious
    scatter in the reported positions. It started flashing in the middle of
    field of view and eventually just stopped flashing, still being in the
    field of view and was not seen again.
    
    99990 50 002A   0433 G 20030104201508500 17 15 0251083-271816 39 R+080 05
    002437
    99990 50 002A   0433 G 20030104201520700 17 15 0251154-271819 39 R+080 05
    002437
    99990 50 002A   0433 G 20030104201545000 17 15 0251318-271811 39 R+080 05
    002437
    99990 50 002A   0433 G 20030104201618900 17 15 0251540-271805 39 R+080 05
    002437
    
    Assuming a circular orbit - VERY unlikely, I get the following:
    height of satellite around 53,000 kilometres and inclination around 28.5
    degrees. I do not find a likely candidate in ALLDAT.TLE. Anyone like to
    guess as to what it could be ? My guess is a rocket casing in a highly
    elliptical orbit.     (This time I found an unknown WELL clear of the
    earths shadow!)
    
    Cheers
    Greg
    
    
    
    
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
    Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe'
    in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org
    http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Jan 05 2003 - 09:05:32 EST