Titan observed; Delta update.
Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Sun, 30 May 1999 22:32:19 +0100
I have just (May 30 21:09 UTC) observed a near-zenith transit by the
decaying USA 144 Titan rocket. Easily seen at 1x in a clear sky, but
with the Sun only 3.4 degrees below the horizon and absolutely no other
objects against which to time it. Roughly on time and spectacularly fast
and bright, at least magnitude -2, perhaps -3, at a range and height of
~200 km.
The Landsat Delta seems to be decaying closer to the SpaceCom/Harro
prediction than my SatEvo one. The latest elset is...
Lndst7 Delta r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.0 d 185 x 113 km
1 25683U 99020B 99150.75463404 .19962007 96200-5 15489-3 0 1427
2 25683 107.5512 279.4314 0055518 248.3244 111.8105 16.46400879 7063
Adjusting the atmospheric profile to better fit today's elsets, I get a
decay at 21:28 UTC (three minutes ago!). SpaceCom's latest forecast is
for 21:37 UTC. If it were to survive, I would have had a decent transit
at 00:11 UTC on the 1st. I'll resist the temptation to use (even more!)
bandwidth with a decay update tonight.
Alan
--
Alan Pickup | COSPAR 2707: 55d53m48.7s N 3d11m51.2s W 156m asl
Edinburgh | Tel: +44 (0)131 477 9144 Fax: +44 (0)870 0520750
Scotland | SatEvo page: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/