Re: geosync flasher

From: Bjoern Gimle@GlocalNet (Gimle@GlocalNet)
Date: Sat Jan 31 2009 - 14:55:43 UTC

  • Next message: Scott and Becky Campbell: "Satobs 31 Jan 2009"

    Yes, I have made an Excel spreadsheet (using Solver) to fit rotation axis 
    and panel angle(s) to observations.
    After that, it predicts the track on the sky for reflections at any 
    date/time, that you can match with predicted track to see if you have an 
    intersection (while sunlit).
    
    It needs a minimum of three observations of (different) positions of 
    BRIGHTEST flashes (or start+end at approximately equal magnitudes) (brighter 
    than about +7 for a GEO).
    They should be spread out over a period of months, and/or widely varying 
    declinations.
    With more than three obs over a long period, the precession of the axis can 
    also be determined, otherwise the predictions will lose their accuracy over 
    the following year.
    
    Rob Matson first did this successfully for Superbird-A #20040, and I have 
    later improved the fit.
    But not lately. The largest tedium is washing out good observations from the 
    wealth of email text messages.
    There is no accepted reporting format allowing search for just these 
    spec(tac)ular flashes.
    
    Search "superbird A" site:satobs.org
    
    /Björn
    
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: "Derek C Breit"
    
    >> geosynch flasher. At 12:22AM local time (06:22 30 Jan 2009 UT) it was
    >> flashing to about magnitude 1.5 every 46 seconds or so. Over the next
    >> few minutes the flashes were fainter and fainter. I'm at the George
    >> observatory, 29 22 30 N, 95 05 37 W, near Houston TX. Any guess what
    >> that was?
    >>
    >
    >
    > Is there a way to predict such occurances???
    >
    > Derek
    
    
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