Re: NOSS 7, Cosmos 1371
Kevin Fetter (kfetter@geocities.com)
Tue, 15 Jun 1999 12:48:29 -0400
Doing a check on the noss 7 pass, what you saw was the D member of the noss
7 cluster. This is a bad noss cluster to look at. For example at 5:43 UT on
June 15/99, when the D member is at a specific point in the sky, the E
member of noss 7 is at a point in the sky around 20 degrees from where the
D member is. Because of this you won't see all three satellite in the field
of view of your binocular's.
Try the following noss cluster to see three satellite's in a binocular
field of view, I have seen all three at once in a pair of 10*50 binocular's
with a field of view of 5.5 degrees.
NOSS 2-2 (C) 3.0 2.0 0.0 5.9 v
1 21799U 91 76C 99154.06427205 .00000035 00000-0 58691-4 0 09
2 21799 63.4280 42.3562 0170000 4.5297 355.4703 13.40313512 00
NOSS 2-2 (D) 3.0 2.0 0.0 5.9 v
1 21808U 91 76D 99154.06440648 .00000035 00000-0 58692-4 0 07
2 21808 63.4280 42.5080 0170001 4.6162 355.3838 13.40313183 03
NOSS 2-2 (E) 3.0 2.0 0.0 5.9 v
1 21809U 91 76E 99154.06427488 .00000035 00000-0 58922-4 0 01
2 21809 63.4280 41.9231 0166000 351.4692 8.5308 13.40313834 02
Enjoy
Kevin
At 07:16 AM 6/15/99 -0700, you wrote:
>
>Beautiful night last night, so I decided to do some satellite watching (for
>the fun of it, as opposed to rigorous "observing").
>
>I don't closely follow military sats, so I'm sorry if I am asking about old
>news. What's up with NOSS 7 (16623 "D", 16624 "E", 16631 "H")? I picked
>up a single satellite of the right brightness (about mag 7) moving in the
>right direction. I scanned around it with my 10x50 binoculars but didn't
>see the other two members of the triplet. Anyone know which I saw -- D, E
>or H? Used the latest Molczan/McCants tle file.
>
>Also, the payload Cosmos 1371 appears to be tumbling. Did not have my
>watch in timing mode. Rough estimate of period is 3 seconds. "Inverted
>flashing" -- it was mag 6.5 for 3 seconds then briefly invisible then back
>again for 3 seconds...
>
>
>__________________________________________________________
>Jim Varney -121.398 W, 38.457 N, 10m
>Member, Sacramento Valley Astronomical Society
>GPS Elsets www.softcom.net/users/jamesv/gps/gps.html
>
>