STS-77 and C* 1975
Walter Nissen (dk058@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Tue, 21 May 1996 10:55:09 -0400
Congratulations to Tony Beresford on your fine OBS.
Besides Gary Morris' excellent Shuttle Elements mailing list, other
possible sources for TLE's during this mission are these:
http://shuttle.nasa.gov/sts-77/orbit/orbiter/sighting/shuttle.html
http://spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov/Spacelink.Hot.Topics/
Current.Shuttle.Mission.STS-77/STS-77.Keplerian.Elements
Or you can try searching for state vectors, which, thank goodness, are
often accompanied by TLE's.
At 960520 0852,
C* 1975 6.0 2.0 0.0 5.9
1 19573U 88093A 96137.96907711 +.00000336 +00000-0 +38969-4 0 09787
2 19573 082.5294 108.4240 0022306 173.1056 187.0466 14.82264692410328
made a low, anti-solar pass about 5 degrees above Arcturus. I was
astonished to catch sight of it as bright as Arcturus. It dimmed very
slowly, providing ample time to gauge its mag as 0, taking almost a full
minute to return to a normal mag 3 or 4.
Walter Nissen dk058@cleveland.freenet.edu
---
Nothing is foolproof. Fools are too ingenious.