Re: Mysterious phenomenon: satellite re-entry?

Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Thu, 19 Mar 1998 18:01:10 -0600

Leo Wikholm (leowik@spider.compart.fi) wrote:
 
> Do you know satellite re-entries on February 18, 1998?
> A mysterius light phenomenon was observed at 17:00 UTC in the western
> part of Finland.
> The man saw six fireballs moving to the North. They were in queue and
> the phenomenon
> was visible about two minutes.
> 
> Leo Wikholm
> e-mail: 

I suspect Iridiums.  Here's Iridflar.exe output for a location that I
believe is in western Finland:

Configuration file: fin1
TLE File: ir80219.tle
Latitude:  62.00000  Longitude:   22.50000  Altitude:   50.0 m
Time Zone: UTC  +2.0 h

       UTC           Iridium           Sun       Flare      Maximum
Flare   Ir
  Date     Time    Azm El Rnge  N I  Azm Elv   Ang Mg MMA  Latit. 
Longit.   #
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
98- 2-18 16:51:08  022 54  942  A L  266 -10   0.0 -8  L   62.000  
22.491  13

98- 2-18 16:52:21  022 55  778  A L  266 -10   0.0 -9  L   61.999  
22.514  54

98- 2-18 16:52:21  022 55  777  A L  266 -10   0.0 -9  L   61.999  
22.512  50

98- 2-18 16:52:21  021 55  774  A L  266 -10   0.0 -9  L   62.000  
22.499  53

98- 2-18 16:52:25  021 55  777  A L  266 -10   0.0 -9  L   62.000  
22.494  52

98- 2-18 16:53:31  020 56  758  A L  267 -10   0.8 -3  L   62.006  
22.275  51

I wish I could have been there!!!!!

Ed Cannon
ecannon@mail.utexas.edu
Austin, Texas, USA