UNID obs
Ron Lee (ronlee@pcisys.net)
Tue, 08 Jun 1999 16:41:53 -0600
Last night I observed two satellites in apparently similar orbits
separated by just a few degrees. Both flared slightly between azimuth
265 and 270. Eventually I determined that they were #24967 and 25262..
Iridiums 36 and 51 respectively.
On 4 Jun local (03:38:01 UT on 5 Jun) I observed another SV at RA 17:42.7
and DEC 51:49 (J2000). It was moving south to SE from the north. Using
Alldat.tle and Skymap revealed no suitable matches. It seemed steady
in magnitude (about 5-6th magnitude) during the short period I saw it.
Realizing that getting only one data point is not the best for matching
satellites, I made a better obs of an UNID on 6 Jun. I saw a naked-eye
satellite occult Arcturus. Noting the time, I continued to follow it
with binoculars until it passed a suitable star group near Polaris.
Running Skymap and Alldat provided a perfect match.