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
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