Iridium 24 no-show, geosynch flasher
Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Sat, 28 Mar 1998 17:16:09 -0600
Last night (early 28 March 1998 UTC) we had Iridflar predictions
for dual monster flares from Iridiums 46 and 24, separated by
only 16 seconds. However, as best as I was able to determine,
only Iridium 46 came through. There was a second, much fainter
brightening a few seconds later, but to me it appeared to be
Iridium 48 again, further down track. I don't think Iridium 24
(24905, 97-43C) became one-power visible at all. It is one of
those in a non-operational orbit. I hope others will observe
Ir 24 when possible to determine if it's truly unreliable.
Later we also saw a apparently geosynch flasher with a period
just over 2 seconds that was for some minutes visible in the
same telescope field as Gorizont 23. I was busy today and
don't know yet if perhaps Mike has identified it. The time was
from about 3:50 to 4:20 (?) UTC on 28 March 1998. This UNID
was quite complex, seeming to disappear and then coming back,
always with the 2+ second period, until it finally did become
invisible. To be continued....
Ed Cannon
ecannon@mail.utexas.edu
Austin, Texas, USA