Alberto Rango's observations help clarify recent developments. His two reported 05004A obs of Mar 02, 18:51 UTC were in fact of 05004C (I could distinguish them by their different tracks). Together with my mine of Mar 03, 09:40 UTC, they reveal that C manoeuvred slightly higher. Here is a preliminary orbit, adjusting only RAAN, mean anomaly and mean motion: NOSS 3-3 (C) 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.0 v 1 28541U 05004C 05062.37767716 .00000011 00000-0 20000-4 0 07 2 28541 63.4422 91.0948 0126693 179.7643 180.3463 13.39771596 04 Arc 2005 Mar 02.79 - 03.40, WRMS residuals = 0.010 deg Description of 2-line elements: http://www.satobs.org/element.html Alberto also reported seeing 05004A and C on Mar 03, 04:20 UTC, through clouds. He was not certain which was which, but the trailer was bright and the leader was faint, and they were separated by "very roughly" 5 deg when at 45 deg elevation. At that elevation, angular velocity was 0.25 deg/s, which would make the their time separation about 20 s. I suspect 05004C was the bright one; therefore, 05004A led by roughly 20 s. Had 05004A not manoeuvred, it would have trailed 05004C by about 8 s, so in order to be leading, 05004A must also have manoeuvred, but a bit lower, perhaps matching 05004C's new mean motion. I still expect both to manoeuvre lower at any time, to about 13.406 rev/d, in which case, they would be about 1 min early per day early relative the latest elements. Ted Molczan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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