Hi All, I figured it wouldn't be long before Alan posted info on the imminent decay of Ofeq 3. A few weeks back I realized that if this satellite's reentry is seen, it has the potential to fool the lucky observer into thinking it's a fireball rather than a satellite, thanks to the east-to-west motion of this satellite from low-to-mid latitudes. This is one of only about two dozen objects (out of the list of 8200+) that is strongly retrograde, and the only one expected to reenter within the next year or so. The 143.3 degree inclination means the reentry will occur somewhere between 36.7 south and 36.7 north latitude. As usual, this favors the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, but it also means that many consecutive passes occur within range of each ground point in the 30-40 degree latitude range. Thus it should be visible as a sunlit nighttime object from some locations in the hours prior to decay. For example, it will make a dim pass visible from San Diego on Tuesday evening at ~6:42pm PDT (1:42UT, 10/25). This is within the current reentry window. --Rob ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 23 2000 - 14:15:32 PDT