Has Gorizont 23 stopped flashing???
Jason Hatton (jason.hatton@etss.u-strasbg.fr)
Wed, 22 Jul 1998 14:41:10 +0000
Hi Everyone,
A while back I posted a message to alert European observers about the
possibility of observing the bright flashing Geosat Gorizont 23
(91-046A, 21533). Normally this flashes approx. once every 50s at about
mag +5, like a celestial lighthouse, so it is quite easy to spot in
binoculars & small scopes. Usually this is a **very** reliable flasher.
Well finally the sky cleared up enough a couple of days ago, so I tried
observing Gorizont 23 in my 6" scope & guess what - there was no sign of
it! I checked I hadn't made any of the usual mistakes in plotting it's
position, looking in the wrong place etc, I was using SGP4 prediction
theory in Skymap & the element was about 6 days old which should be
fresh enough for an inert Geosat. Unfortunately, the OIG web page was
down yesterday & I couldn't obtain a fresher element to check if I was
working with a dud elset.
Details of negative observation are; searched between 21:20 & 21:25UT, &
then again 21:45 - 22:05UT with 6" scope (1.8deg FOV), 20-Jul-98. I
didn't have a chance to follow up with binoculars in case Gorizont's
position was off due to the sudden appearance of clouds. Here's the
element I was using for reference;
GORIZONT 23
1 21533U 91046A 98195.24839422 .00000000 00000-0 10000-3 0 726
2 21533 4.0150 66.2691 0006774 84.2908 275.7312 0.98902732 19840
I'd be interested to know if any other anyone else has spotted Gorizont
23 recently.
Best wishes & clear skies,
Jason
--
Jason P Hatton
ETS Strasbourg
67065 Strasbourg Cedex
France
48.538N / 7.731E / 143m