Re: Object moving in front of ISS

From: Markus Mehring (m.m@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Oct 09 2001 - 05:35:03 EDT

  • Next message: Ulrich Beinert: "Re: Inidentfied"

    On Tue, 09 Oct 2001 09:08:28 +0200, you (Tristan Cools
    <tristan.cools@skynet.be>) wrote:
    
    >Those fragments are probably related to the ISS spacewalk of yesterday.
    >They have a very large drag factor meaning a a relative large volume and
    >low mass.  26944 even has a negative drag factor !
    
    Not bad. I hope they took some TV footage or still photos of the objects
    during the EVA; I'd love to see that up close.
    
    >This fragment was
    >probably released in prograde direction meaning that it was moving behind
    >ISS.(maybe seen by Markus Mehring)
    
    I didn't see any trailers in the formation, only two leaders. Upon the
    surprise of seeing these objects, I ensured to check around the ISS for any
    others, but without success. For a brief moment I thought I saw a third
    leader a bit above the two others, towards the ISS, but that was way too
    faint and too short to be sure, and the new elements don't give a match in
    that probable position within the formation anyway.
    
    Checking that ISS pass (~18:00 UTC) with the elements you gave, I'm quite
    certain that the brighter one was 26945, which you also saw, and which
    quite likely is the brightest of the four objects. I would agree to a
    guessed magnitude of around +5 during that pass. "My" second object of the
    formation must have been 26946, and it was so faint that the ISS itself
    would almost outshine it if I kept it in the same FOV; I'd say it was quite
    well below mag +6.
    
    Thinking about it, it also might be worth looking for 26944. Because no one
    seemingly saw it last night is no certain indication that it can't be seen
    at all. Looking at the recreated formation, I wouldn't rule out the
    possibility that it simply would have appeared too close to the ISS to be
    seen as a standalone object.
    
    
    CU!	Markus (E8.7434, N51.7264, 113m, MEST)
    
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