Jari posted: >This was posted on another forum, most likely a meteor but were there any >re-entries in the area at the time? > >Posted: Nov 8 2004, 10:01 PM > >just a few minutes ago. It started looking like Haley's comet, but seemed >to be heading NE. I'm in central Alabama and it was visible at a heading of >approx. 275 degrees. After about 5 minutes, it disipated into a very large >cloud-like visual effect. Soon after that, the "cloud" dissappeared >completely. I watched that particular section of the night sky for a while >longer, only to see an airliner pass shortly afterward. Like most of the >guys here, I know aircraft, and this was like nothing I've ever seen. There is now a report on sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe from David Oesper in Ames, Iowa of an "expanding rocket plume" at 2:40UT on Nov. 9. I would assume that this was the orbit circularization burn for the recently-launched Navstar 56. The current elset is just before the observation time: NAVSTAR 56 (USA-180) 1 28474U 04045A 04314.06115767 .00053845 -36279-6 44335-3 0 85 2 28474 39.1344 278.1972 6072761 196.6007 128.3232 4.04156181 130 Here is my guess for a circular orbit: 1 28474U 04045A 04314.10000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 00 2 28474 55.0000 282.0000 0001000 16.0000 0.0000 2.00000000 00 Here is a prediction with this elset for Huntsville, AL: Lat 34.7 north Long 86.6 west 2004 Nov 8/9 Mon evening Times are UT NAVSTAR 56 (modified) Hrs Min Alt Azi Hgt (miles) 2 15 11 265 12574 2 20 12 266 12574 2 25 13 268 12574 2 30 15 270 12574 2 35 16 272 12574 2 40 17 274 12575 2 45 19 275 12575 2 50 20 277 12575 2 55 22 279 12575 3 0 23 281 12575 GPS circularization burns have been seen even lower in the sky than this. It should have been even higher in the sky for observers farther west. When there is an updated elset for 28474, it will be obvious whether or not this explanation is correct. Mike McCants ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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