Hatton's UNID identified

ROB MATSON (ROBERT.D.MATSON@cpmx.saic.com)
2 Mar 1998 15:54:47 -0800

Regarding Jason Hatton's UNID from Strasbourg, France:

His observation was actually on 25 Feb 1998 between 20:30 and 20:35 UTC,
rather than 21:30 - 21:35 (as he reported earlier).  Since France is at =
UTC
+ 1 hour, it's easy to see where the mistake came from.

Anyway, I had to relax the magnitude restriction a bit on SkyMap, but
I believe I've figured out what Jason saw:  the recently launched Skynet =
4D
(1998-002A).  At 20:30 UTC, it was at RA 7h 15m 12s, Dec -5d 14' 37"
(J2000).  At 20:35, it was at RA 7h 21m 12s, Dec -5d 19' 48".  Jason,
try the following orbital elements to see if the track agrees with what
you saw:

Skynet 4D
1 25134U 98002A   98056.00000000 +.00000023 +00000-0 +00000-0 0 00404 
2 25134 004.1157 314.0114 0006227 276.4371 290.1800 01.00271418000516

If I've got 23 Mon and Zeta Mon correctly identified, the track looks =
like a
perfect match.  --Rob