Two Rapid flashers - not found by my software
Terry Pundiak (terrypun@fast.net)
Fri, 19 Jun 1998 01:08:21 -0500
Tonight I happened upon two flashing satellites not on my list of
sats-to-see tonight and I can't match the sightings with my list of
Molczan tle's using Orbitrack search mode. Perhaps, someone with
fancier software could figure out what they were.
Both were rapidly flashing - much less than 1 flash per second. The
flashes were as bright as 0 or -1 magnitude, I believe. Both were
moving quickly like LEO satellites would, and moving South to North.
They both flashed in a similar way and, actually, both reminded me of
Iridium 11. They were perhaps magnitude 5 or 6 when not flashing.
The first was sighted at 2:09:40 UTC at 135 deg azimuth and 40 deg
elevation; another sighting was 2:10:45 UTC at 90 deg azimuth at 80 deg
elevation.
The second was seen 4 degrees East of the North Star (40 deg) at 2:31:50
UTC.
Anyone have a clue what satellites these may have been?
--
Terry Pundiak, M.D.
N3BDC
Easton, PA
lat 40.693389 N, long 75.26615 W