Re: BS-3A (Yuri 3A) & Raduga 33 & 98001 & GFO &c.
Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Mon, 01 Mar 1999 03:26:27 -0600
Regarding BS/Yuri 3A (20771, 90-77A), the last two nights
Mike McCants and I also observed the bright-bright-faint
flash pattern that Rob Matson reported. Mike discovered a
very small but repeated asymmetry in the timings, and I
got it also, although I barely had enough times to see it:
Bright Bright Faint
------ ------ -----
87.76 88.32
87.42 87.67 88.22
87.67 87.67
175.78 87.77 88.23
87.55 87.82
Occasionally, observing with telescope, there was a secondary
flash about a second after one of the bright ones. Some of
the bright flashes were one-power even with all the moonlight.
Mike wondered if there might be reports by astronomers of an
unknown flashing object going through/very near the Orion
nebula, because it did go there both nights.
I'm glad that some other folks are seeing Raduga 33 (23794,
96-10A). There weren't many follow-ups when I mentioned it
last year. Mike and I saw a few one-power flashes Saturday
night. My recollection is that some of them last summer
were as bright as or perhaps a lot brighter than +2.
"Thank you very much!!" to Rob Matson for looking for and
recovering "98001"! Saturday night we apparently looked to
late, but Sunday night Mike found it and we both watched it
a while. Some of its flashes were visible in Mike's 12x80
finder, in spite of the moonlight.
Saturday night (early Sunday UTC) Mike and I observed a +1
flare from GFO (25157, 98-7A). The pass was very high in the
west, and the flare was north of its culmination. OIG gives
GFO's radar cross-section as 1.5!
All of these observations were from Bee Cave Research Center,
Austin, Texas, USA - 30.314N, 97.866W, 280m.
Has anyone in the southern hemisphere seen anything like the
super flashes exhibited last summer by SPOT 3 (22823, 93-61A)?
For a few weeks, on almost every pass it displayed one-power
flashes, and some of them were extremely bright negative
magnitudes -- truly awesome.
NOAA 7 (12553, 81-59A) does some good flashes also, and it
may be having visible passes in the southern hemisphere now.
Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA