NOSS 2-3 Rk almost four minutes early

Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Wed, 15 Jul 1998 05:46:54 -0400

Using this elset:

NOSS 2-3 r
1 23907U 96029B   98163.90798512  .00022248  00000-0  23801-3 0    03
2 23907  63.5228  92.6329 0085942  84.6670 274.8197 15.58857710    04

I had a the following local time (UTC -5) predictions:

  30.309  97.728  500.   4501 Speedway, Austin, T 2000  4.5 12 F F T T T
 
***  1998 July 15  Wed morning  *** Times are AM CDT  ***  2122  550
 
 H  M  S  Tim Al Azi C Dir  Mag Dys F  Hgt Shd  Rng  EW Phs  R A   Dec
 
23907 NOSS 2-3 Rk    96 29B                       c 2.0 
 5  9 49  4.1 43 135   284  1.4  33 8  225  46  319 2.5  82  116  -6.1
 5 10  3  4.1 45 119 C 272  1.4  33 9  224  63  311 2.4  92  145   3.1
 5 10 10  4.1 45 111   265  1.5  33 9  224  72  311 2.3  97  2 1   7.7
 5 10 17  4.1 44 103   259  1.6  33 9  224  80  315 2.2 103  216  12.2
 
At about 10:06:26 UTC it passed some degrees below (east of) Saturn,
which Home Planet tells me was at 44 deg. alt., 106 deg. az., at that
time.  That makes the rocket about 3:48 early and about 5 (?) degrees 
lower than the predicted altitude above the horizon.

Iridium 11's pass was much less favorable this morning, but I got a 
few bright flash times (UTC):  approximately 10:10:31, 10:10:55, 
10:11:21, 10:11:27, and probably one more at about 10:14:20.  There
were a few other one-power flashes.

Iridium 12 was predicted -6 and probably made it but had interference
from clouds or fog at its low altitude (15 deg.), so that I observed 
its brightness fluctuating significantly.

Iridium 13, somewhat higher and predicted +1, was at least that bright.

Iridium 52, pred. +1 at 11 deg. altitude, I missed due to fog/clouds,
and or trees, and probably the Moon and some streetlights as well.

Also saw UARS and Cosmos 1145 Rk (11630, 79-99B).

We were clouded out Tuesday evening.

Ed Cannon -- ecannon@mail.utexas.edu -- Austin, Texas, USA