Re: Okean-O Zenit and Okean-O: worth the wait!
Quinster7@aol.com
Tue, 20 Jul 1999 09:40:52 EDT
In a message dated 7/20/99 3:25:51 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
ecannon@mail.utexas.edu writes:
<< Okean-O Zenit is a very bright (one-power) fast flasher with a
period of about 0.5 second! I first tried clicking with each
flash. That was 20 clicks. Then I tried to count 30 cycles to
the next click. So that gave me the second timing totaling 50
cycles. Then I started again and tried to count 70 cycles
between two clicks. I estimated .3 error due to it not being
easy to be certain that I was counting correctly with it
tumbling that rapidly. These were all done using one-power!
99- 39 B 99-07-20 03:21:27 EC 10.0 0.3 20 0.50 mag +1.5->inv (1x)
99- 39 B 99-07-20 03:21:43 EC 25.7 0.3 50 0.51 mag +1.5->inv (1x)
99- 39 B 99-07-20 03:22:55 EC 36.7 0.3 70 0.52 mag +1.5->inv (1x)
Okean-O (25860, 99-39A) and Okean-O Zenit (25861, 99-39B) were
worth waiting out more than 30-40 minutes of clouds! Okean-O
was easily visible at one-power, at least +2.5, maybe +2.0.
Is it in its permanent orbit? >>
I agree! I made it a point to observe this flashing Zenit last night after
reading a previous post. I'm sure glad I did. This is the fastest and
brightest flasher I have yet seen - appearing more like an airplane than a
satellite but "strobing" even more often than an airplane would. My guess at
the period was below 1 sec (no timing) but I am still surprised it was as
fast as .5 sec! My estimating skills are still not that great without
actually timing. Flashes were between 0 and 1st magnitude from my location,
with the Zenit passing from south to north centerred on July 20, 01:45 UTC,
culminating at 43 deg. in the east. I realized that Okean-O itself would
make a similar pass afterwards but did not wait out to observe it because I
did not think it would be so bright. I'll have to give it a try soon also.
Quinn McCleery
Raleigh, NC
35.88525N
75.52529W