"Sputnik Jr. 3" same as Swatch "Beatnik"?
Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Tue, 18 May 1999 01:03:40 -0500
Jay Respler wrote:
> Mike McCants wrote:
>> We saw Sputnik Jr. 3 on a very favorable pass. It seemed to vary
>> from about magnitude 6 to 8 with a period of maybe 4 or 5 seconds.
>
> This confirms my observation of several days ago. Now if this is a
> sphere, what causes the varying?
spacewalks, I believe that Sputnik Jr. 3 is the same object as the
infamous Swatch "Beatnik". The original Sputnik had (and, I believe,
the "Beatnik" has) four antennas (i.e., four narrow "specular
cylinders") and four sets of various small specular surfaces where
the antennas are mounted onto the sphere. So those must cause the
varying.
There are various illustrations of the Swatch "Beatnik" at this URL:
http://www.swatch.com/beatnik/beatnik.php3
which is a sub-page of this site:
http://www.swatch.com/beatnik/frameset.html
The dimensions of the "Beatnik" aren't given, but from some of the
photos, it appears that the spherical core is about 20 cm in diameter.
So the antennas would seem to be about 40 to 50 cm in length. (Hey
Rob, what are your magnitude calculations for specular cylinders that
are about 45 cm long and 0.5 cm in diameter?!)
Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA