RE: Unidentified satellite - need help with identification

From: Ted Molczan (ssl3molcz@rogers.com)
Date: Mon Mar 23 2009 - 16:05:38 UTC

  • Next message: George Roberts: "Re: Unidentified satellite - need help with identification"

    George wrote: 
    
    > TJS gave me some corrections.  It was actually March 19 utc 
    > (March 18 10:30pm local - yes really that late at night).  
    > The star that the satellite passed very close to was alnitak
    > (left most star in orion's belt) - about 2 degrees east of 
    > alnitak.
    > 
    > location: 34.1950°N, 79.7630°W
    > time: March 19 0230 UTC plus or minus 10 minutes
    > RA 5h43m  dec -2.5 deg (plus or minus 10 degrees)
    > 
    > The satellite must have been very high to pass through zenith 
    > and only fade out half way back to eastern the horizon again.
    
    Thank you for obtaining those clarifications.
    
    Which raises the question, how long did it take to traverse from 2 degrees east
    of Alnitak to the point of fadeout in the N.E.? We can attempt to reconcile that
    with the expected motion of an object orbiting sufficiently high to have been
    clear of the shadow.
    
    Ted Molczan
    
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive:  
    http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Mar 23 2009 - 16:06:26 UTC