> Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 07:51:43 -0700 > From: sheaffer@netcom.com (Robert Sheaffer) > Subject: Observations: 3 Unknowns > [ ... ] > Either we have a bunch of UFOs flying about, or else there are a > bunch of objects up there not cataloged in ALLDAT.TLE. A side note to this... I caught an unknown in the lower right quadrant of my 7 degree binocular field of view while watching the last part of a Mir pass on the evening of June 2nd (June 3, 02:04 +/- 0:00:30, UT at 30.363 N, 97.727 W). Unknown was east of Mir, moving upwards and eastwards. My estimates of magnitude should be taken with a huge grain of salt, and having said that, I estimate the unknown's magnitude to have been in the general neighborhood of +4. I had no luck whatsoever identifying it from the alldat.tle file. The closest match in position and time was Cosmos 475 Rk (72 9B), but it would have had to have been running almost 2.5 minutes late, which Mike McCants informs me is highly unlikely. Since I don't have a copy of HighFly, Ed Cannon has offered to check those type objects for me, the idea being that *possibly* my unknown is in a highly eccentric orbit and was near perigee when I saw it. So, anyway, you're not the only one seeing UFO's up there! :-) --Sue Worden (worden@uts.cc.utexas.edu)