Very bright geosync satellite On one of his photographs of comet Hale-Bopp Gerald Remann discovered the starlike trail of an unknown object of magnitude 6 - 7. He gave this information: observing site: Sankt Pölten, Austria (long. 15.63 E, lat. 48.19 N, 270 m) positions: 1996 July 13 22:46 UTC RA 18:24.5 D -8d17' 2000.0 22:53 18:32.0 -8d09' 2000.0 23:30 19:04 -7d36' 2000.0 First two times +/- 30 sec, third time +/- 10 minutes. On July 15 I got a phone call from Jost Jahn (Vereinigung der Stern- freunde), who asked me to identify the object. Nothing was found with Mike's ALLDAT.TLE. Next I tried to derive an orbit with FIRST and ELCOR: 1 48.1900 -15.6300 1150. Gerald Remann UNK960713 1 96713U 96195.51095972 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 06 2 96713 3.7001 290.8696 0345170 318.3368 228.3842 1.00274000 04 1 96 7 13 22 46 0.0 18 24.50 -8.283 2000 1.0 1 96 7 13 22 53 0.0 18 32.00 -8.150 2000 1.0 1 96 7 13 23 23 0.0 19 4.00 -7.600 2000 0.0 not used 0 0 1195 2246 .0 1.4 18 24.50 -8.283 18 24.50 -8.283 .000 .000 .000 1195 2253 .0 1.4 18 32.00 -8.150 18 32.00 -8.150 .000 .000 .000 1195 2323 .0 3.4 19 3.99 -7.571 19 4.00 -7.600 .002 -.029 .030 This orbit looked quite reasonable, but the object was incredibly bright for a rather long time. As my sky grew dark it was completely overcast. I had to wait more than two hours before the first small holes appeared between the clouds and I could identify some stars in southern Aquila with 10x50B. Then I turned to 20x80B, because I expected not more than mag 8 to 9 for the unknown object. Searching was rather difficult as stars appeared and disappeared among clouds. About July 15 23:35 UTC I found a bright object (mag 6.5) which didn't move together with the other stars. I could get two rough points before my sky was completely overcast again: 1996 July 15 23:44:20.78 UTC RA 19:35.15 D -7d34.1' 2000.0 23:44:57.22 19:35.45 -7d36.6' 2000.0 positional accuracy +/- 0.05 deg timing accuracy +/- 0.2 seconds. mag 6.5 steady These observations are on track and about 3 minutes late with my first elset. An improved orbit is: 2 48.1900 -15.6300 1150. Gerald Remann 53.7695 -9.6626 30. Rainer Kracht UNK960713 1 96713U 96195.51095972 .00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 06 2 96713 3.6027 292.9766 0211334 301.6396 243.2487 1.00239934 00 1 96 7 13 22 46 0.0 18 24.50 -8.283 2000 0.3 1 96 7 13 22 53 0.0 18 32.00 -8.150 2000 0.3 1 96 7 13 23 24 0.0 19 4.00 -7.600 2000 0.0 not used 2 96 7 15 23 44 20.8 19 35.15 -7.568 2000 1.0 2 96 7 15 23 44 57.2 19 35.45 -7.610 2000 1.0 0 0 1195 2246 .0 11.6 18 24.50 -8.274 18 24.50 -8.283 .001 -.009 .009 1195 2253 .0 -1.5 18 32.00 -8.146 18 32.00 -8.150 .000 -.004 .004 1195 2324 .0 .0 19 3.99 -7.587 19 4.00 -7.600 .003 -.013 .014 2197 2344 20.8 -9.3 19 35.15 -7.586 19 35.15 -7.568 -.001 .018 .018 2197 2344 57.2 8.5 19 35.44 -7.580 19 35.45 -7.610 .002 -.030 .030 Rainer Kracht 1996 July 16 R.Kracht@t-online.de +9.6626E, +53.7695N, 9m