Just seen 96038B
Jacob Nevins (jacob@spuddy.mew.co.uk)
Tue, 16 Jul 96 19:33:50 BST
Observed the rocket thingy 96038B at 21:34(ish) UT 1996-07-15
using the following elements: (forget who posted them)
1 96033U 96 38 B 96162.00000000 .00050766 00000-0 13871-3 0 00
2 96039 54.9975 153.4960 0012449 325.8846 131.0116 15.93264438 00
Timed 12 flashes (well, 13 flashes, 12 periods) at 15.89 sec;
just one timing since I don't have a fancy stopwatch. This gives
a period of appx. 1.32 sec. I may have inadvertently timed two
sets of flashes, though; to me every other flash seemed to have
a faster 'attack', but that may have been just imagination. From
when I acquired it to culmination flashes were from invisible to
a brightness comparable with Arcturus, which makes it about 0
(not based on any meaningful comparison so just a ballpark
figure). After culmination maxima became dimmer and the object
was visible (and quite bright) all of the time. Didn't see it
into eclipse due to obstructions. The flashes weren't 'glints',
but steadily built up and decayed.
These observations probably aren't very accurate/useful, but I'm
quite pleased with this sighting since I'm a rank beginner at
this and the only other sat I've ever seen is Mir. This one was
very impressive.
Regards - Jacob Nevins
<jacob@spuddy.mew.co.uk>
50.1 N 005.5 W
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