Unknown leading JERS 1

finn@main.jetnet.ab.ca
Mon, 26 Jul 1999 23:49:38 -0600 (MDT)

Despite high thin clouds and the Moon, a few brighter stars were visible so
i decided to see if i could catch a triple flare from JERS 1 #21867 92007A
again. At 05:04:11 27 Jul UTC +/- 2 sec i spotted a bright object in the
area JERS 1 was expected to become visible in, Az 80 El 45. Even with the
poor vis it was easily seen, mag est at 1. I thought it was JERS 1 at first
with the direction of travel and location however it remained steady for
several seconds and it was moving pretty fast, not like my previous
sightings of JERS 1. Then at 05:04:40 UTC +/- 5 sec i spotted another object
along the same track, just a slight variation in azimuth and elevation. Mag
was about 2 and then it faded before flaring momentarily several seconds
later to mag 1 followed by another mag 1 flare about 5-7 seconds later. The
same behaviour JERS 1 had yesterday. So i am confident that the second
object was indeed JERS 1.

I tried to ID the first object but i could find nothing. I estimate this
object was coming from Az 130 and going to 330 roughly. JERS 1 was 146 to
350. COS-B r was coming by at the same time frame but it's track was South
to North and the poor visibility prevented a sighting of it.

Jari
54.25N
110.11W
556m