Dear members of SeeSat-L,
as a member of DARK SKY Germany I normally spend my time fighting
against light pollution and skybeamers. But if there's a little time
left I enjoy satellite observing. (And - of course - I ALWAYS enjoy your
interesting news in SeeSat-L).
THIS NIGHT HAPPENED SOMETHING VERY UNEXPECTED:
Leaving the railway station in Darmstadt I looked up in the sky in the
east (up to Deneb and Altair). Suddenly an space object (there is no
doubt, it WAS an space object!!!) came from the left into my field of
view.
IT HAD AN PLASMA TRAIL BEHIND IT!!! (colour of the plasma trail
orange-white-red - perhaps the colour of Antares).
It moved at the speed of an jet-aircraft flying after take-off at an
altitude of 3000ft (BUT OF COURSE IT WAS NO AIRCRAFT! - although in the
first moment I thought "Hey, oh no! There's an aircraft with a burning
engine!")
SECONDS LATER I REALIZED: "WOW!!! THIS COULD BE A REENTERING
SATELLITE!!!!!" And just at this moment the object broke into to
brighter parts and one dimmer part and started falling down. In this
moment it lost it's brightness and I was no longer able to see it.
But now some data for you (please allow an inaccuracy of +-10 degrees
and of +-20 seconds in time, because I was looking at this wonderful
phenomenon and not at my watch):
Observation Location:
Darmstadt, Germany (N 49 51 E 8 39)
Time:
2000-06-22 22:35:50 UTC (Thursday)
(2000-06-23 00:35:50 central european summer time (=UTC+2h))
First plasma trail observation:
Az. 080 Alt. 40
Object breaking into three parts (each with a little plasma trail behind
it) and suddenly loosing all it's brightness - end of observation:
Az. 120 Alt. 35
ALL HAPPENED WELL BELOW EPSILON CYGNI (this star was at Alt. 50 degrees
at this time) IN ALTITUDE AND THEN MAYBE PASSING THE DELPHINUS
CONSTELLATION (due to severe light pollution I was unable to see
Delphinus).
I don't think this was a bolide "fireball" (4 reasons):
1. Object was travelling at orbital speed (7-9 km/s)
2. Bolides are bright and "thick", this object was dim and "thin"
3. inclination of object-orbit was estimated 75-105 degrees
(object was travelling from north to south)
4. object had a THIN plasma trail behind it (not a "thick" one like
bolides)
(Magnitude and colour of object and plasma trail was like Antares.)
I hope my above observations can help to identify this object. I hope
this was an decay. It would be the first observation of a
satellite-reentry in my life.
So far for this night.
Clear and dark skies for all of you
Franz Strambach
23.06.2000
DARK SKY Germany
www.Licht-Verschmutzung.de
("Licht-Verschmutzung" is the German word for "light pollution")
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jun 22 2000 - 19:12:35 PDT