Re: Gorizont 23 back over Europe

Jason Hatton (jphatton@hotmail.com)
Wed, 14 Jul 1999 03:39:47 PDT

This is my 4th attempt to send this message, the three previous attempts
failed to reach SeeSat-L via my normal e-mail...
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Kurt Jonckherre wrote,
>
>during May 1999, Gorizont 23 = 91- 46 A = 21533 was
>observed regularly by different European Observers.
>They found that the period of this near-geostationary
>object was increasing almost perfectly linear from
>day to day.
>During June it was only observed by Mike McCants who
>could still confirm the linear increase.
>Unfortenately no observations have been made since then.

>Who makes the next observation ?

I tried to observe Gorizont 23 yesterday evening (12th June 1999) between
20:25 & 20:50UT. Observing conditions were rather poor, with a lot of haze
resulting in a limiting magnitude of only +8 to +9 in my 6" scope.
Unfortunately I only saw a few faint sporadic flashes & not with enough
certainty to make a timing. Based on my experience of observing this object
last year it appears that the brightness of Gorizont 23 may vary throughout
the year. I seem to remember during July of last year Gorizont was also
relatively faint, but still bright enough to be seen in through my
telescope.

I would be interested to know if any other observers have noted the
approximate flash brightness of Gorizont 23 over several months, since it
might provide clues as to the orientation & precession of the spin axis.

Another interesting geoflasher which is well placed for European observers
is Raduga 27 (21132/91-014A). I observed this satellite for several weeks
following its discovery  by Rainer Kresken. The flash period of this
satellite was continuing to accelerate up to my last observation a couple
of weeks ago, with the period down to 76.17s on the 16-Jun-1999 at 21:05UT
(compared to 92s at the time of its discovery).

Unfortunately, sometime between 20:50UT 16-Jun-1999 & 21:05UT 20-Jun-1999
the satellite appeared to stop flashing. Rainer Kresken in a private e-mail
indicated that Raduga 27 appeared to stop flashing about a week before the
flashes stopped at my site. Also in the days prior to the satellite
becoming invisible the brightness of the flashes faded quite considerably.
Since Rainer is further north than I am, it would appear that the path of
flash visibility is moving south. Therefore, it would be interesting to see
if any observers at more southern latitudes manage to spot this geoflasher.

Here is a recent TLE for Raduga 27

RADUGA 27
1 21132U 91014A   99179.32993443  .00000147  00000-0  00000+0 0  2462
2 21132   5.1999  67.5267 0002475 193.2678 166.5255  1.00209926 30531

Futher details of the flash characteristics of Gorizont, Raduga & Ekran
satellites can be found at;

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/1668/gorizont.htm

Best wishes,


Jason Hatton

43.692N, 7.246E,30M
(43d41'29"N,7d14'47"E,30m)

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/1668/high-alt.htm


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