Two satellite ID requests

Larry Klaes (larryk@cambridge.village.com)
Wed, 27 Mar 1996 11:51:44 -0500 (EST)

If I may beg another satellite ID request from this group:  Last night
(March 26) my astronomy students and I had our last observing class with
what has to be the best session I ever had.  The sky was nearly perfect
in terms of the weather and celestial objects visible.  This included the 
first-quarter Moon, Venus, the Pleiades, and of course comet Hyakutake.
The comet displayed a tail which stretched halfway to the Big Dipper,
from what I could tell, given the nearby light pollution to our south.

As we were generally focused on the northern sky from our location in
Concord, MA, we soon spotted two satellites, both of which intersected
the Big Dipper.  The first, at 8:35 p.m. ET, moved from the direction of
Polaris through the handle of the Big Dipper, and disappeared shortly
thereafter.  The second, appearing 5 minutes later, moved through the
cup of the Big Dipper towards Polaris.  Both satellites seemed fainter
than the Lacrosse 1 sighting we had two weeks earlier (Mag. 2 or so),
but both had the same reddish-yellow coloring.  We didn't wave this
time. :^)

If anyone on this list could identify them for us, we would be most
appreciative.  I know there are programs out there that can ID these
sats for me, but my last experiences with asking for an ID from this
list were wonderful, and I would rather talk to a person than deal
with a "cold" program any day.  In addition, I also learned a lot more
about the satellite than I would have from a program.  I also got 
several of my students satellite observing as a result.  And no, I
have not installed any sat programs yet.

Thanks in advance!

Larry Klaes
larryk@village.com