Re: Possible New Naked Eye GEO Flasher
Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Wed, 03 Mar 1999 04:20:09 -0600
I believe that I observed six one-power (+3 at least) flashes
from the same object as was reported in a message from Ron Lee on
February 28:
http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/Feb-1999/0394.html
That night the object was observed from Houston, Texas, beginning
at about 1:30 on March 1 UTC and then from about 1:45-2:15 from
Fort Worth, Texas.
The flashes I observed occurred from about 2:00 to 2:40 on 3 March
UTC (8:00-8:40 PM Central Standard Time). The three for which I
had the best timings were at about 2:28:54, 2:33:00, and 2:37:10,
for a period of *roughly* four minutes, 8 seconds. After that, I
did not see any more. The first flash that I saw was a little
east of Orion's belt, and the flashes *appeared* to slowly move
west to east from there. However, as Mike McCants wrote just the
other day, "Of course any geosync will appear to move slowly
relative to the stars as the stars move 15 degrees per hour east to
west."
I believe that this object is likely to be Telstar 401:
Telstar 401
1 22927U 93077A 99049.33518252 -.00000126 +00000-0 +00000-0 0 01114
2 22927 001.6107 085.7695 0006296 212.7208 228.6988 01.00286207018495
Telstar 401 failed in January 1997, and there was some discussion
of it at that time:
http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/Jan-1997/index.html
including an observation that Mike M. sent:
http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/Jan-1997/0264.html
in which he reported:
] In general, it fluctuated from mag 9 to 13.5 or 14, with
] brightenings at 3:37, 3:39, 3:47, 3:53, 4:00, 4:07, and
] 4:19/20. The major brightenings were at 4:07 and 4:19/20,
] possibly indicating a period of about 12 or 13 minutes.
If it's not Telstar 401, there were several other geosynchs in
the same area!
Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA