Hi Mike I was frankly amazed to read your message now and never suspected that all three "unknowns" were one and the same! On Nov 1 I mistakenly reported a near stationary satellite as Vortex 6 which you found was incorrect. Then Kevin observed an object the next day and I subsequently observed it later based on your orbit from Kevins long track. I did a long track and then stopped tracking it and forgot about it and went onto observe some of my usual geosats and found an "unknown" near MERCURY 2 (which was the prime target at the time). I did hope/suspect that it was the same object seen on the 1 Nov but at no stage thought it was Kevins "unknown". Looking at the observations now that Ive read your message I should have suspected this but the thought never crossed my mind! I guess I can make the excuse that I was observing "Kevins" satellite with the 200mm focal length camera, whilst the "unknown" found later was only observed with the 50mm camera so would not have looked the same and I only found it today when I looked at the 50mm images. Anyway pleased that three "unknowns" have now become one -- means I dont have to hunt for them again and Im sure this also makes Kevin happy. Also it does seem to prove that the sky is not that big that two observers widely spaced (Canada/South Africa) can "discover" the same object within hours - the other case being the first X 37B where we independently discovered it ,again a few hours apart - this time Kevin beat me -- not that there is any competition of any sort I must add! Satellite tracking is fun and full of twists :-)) Cheers Greg _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
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