Pageos DA, PPAS timing, C* 1933 family

Walter Nissen (dk058@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Sat, 2 Sep 1995 16:11:17 -0400

Last night I managed to snatch glimpses of 13 satellites arcing between 
fluffy "fair weather" clouds. 
 
First was Mir making a grand valedictory pass near the end of a short 
observing season at this latitude.  Due to a social obligation I couldn't 
get any useful data, but it seemed to be right on time, reached maybe 
magnitude -1 and was suitably spectacular before taking refuge in the 
shadow of our Earth. 
 
Then I took a look at one of the elderly members of the C* 1933 family 
C* 1842      6.0  2.0  0.0  5.9 
1 17911U 87038  A 95234.18606070  .00000148  00000-0  14826-4 0  3314 
2 17911  82.4990 285.9327 0021855  54.1395 306.1838 14.83891897449292 
It was quite steady but did provide a single glint of about 6 seconds, and 
about 1.5 magnitudes, in the middle of the pass. 
 
The mother ship of this family (at least in my experience) then put on one 
of its predictably unpredictable performances. 
C* 1933      6.0  2.0  0.0  5.9 
1 18958U 88020A   95237.14159143 +.00000178 +00000-0 +18869-4 0 01504 
2 18958 082.5384 118.0983 0018794 005.3896 354.7519 14.83086941401983 
She exhibited broad, bright maxima interspersed with sharp, not-so-bright 
flashes during the first part of the pass.  I extracted these timings of 
the flashes to provide this for PPAS: 
 
Walter I. Nissen, Jr., CDP, dk058@cleveland.freenet.edu, 55 Barrett RD #808, 
Berea, OH 44017-1657, USA, 216-243-4980, -81d 51.823', 41d 22.413', 256m, 7x35 
88- 20 A 95-09-02  1:26:50.5 WN   35.6  .5   5  7.11   C* 1933, f'f' irreg 
these timings are of sharp f's amidst many irregular 
 
Then it became dtm (difficult to measure) in the last half of the pass, 
with a steady appearance or indistinct variations of very small magnitude. 
 
Then I took an initial look at 
Microlab 1       1.0  0.0  0.0  8.4 
1 23547U 95017  C 95235.14605607  .00000106  00000-0  47082-4 0   449 
2 23547  69.9785 143.9645 0015184 243.7422 116.2150 14.45398943 20459 
which I found to be mostly about magnitude 5 or fainter down to 
invisibility but it did have one glorious moment as it briefly glinted 
to about the brightness of Vega (mag 0) as it passed that beacon of the 
night. 
 
After a little sleep, one of the large Pageos fragments, 
Pageos DA 
1 05994U 63014DA  95244.11793386  .02611835  00000-0  17417+0 0  8728 
2 05994  83.8214 228.4778 2824035 142.5784 240.9915  9.65017068190561 
went by.  It reached maybe magnitude 1, and was about 82 seconds late wrt 
to this elset, by reference to its fence passing between alpha and beta 
Aur.  Clouds, and maybe morning sluggishness, prevented any precise 
astrometry, although I do have two other recorded times which I could 
possibly turn into astrometry if I can identify the stars involved. 
 
Then I followed another elderly member of the C* 1933 family, 
C* 1606      6.0  2.0  0.0  5.9 
1 15369U 84111A   95237.02337096 +.00000174 +00000-0 +17018-4 0 07233 
2 15369 082.5140 231.8822 0018373 250.3735 109.5500 14.86242727585842 
for over 3 minutes of steadiness.  While I was watching it decline, I 
spotted an UnID arcing in the other direction, and later identified it as 
C* 1184 r    3.8  2.6  0.0  5.9 
1 11822U 80044B   95237.50025944  .00000372  00000-0  30432-4 0  5393 
2 11822  81.2470  40.2052 0042162  19.6437 340.6389 14.96265254825895 
 
I didn't see it last night, but 
C* 1953      6.0  2.0  0.0  5.9 
1 19210U 88050A   95236.97147432 +.00000187 +00000-0 +20632-4 0 09315 
2 19210 082.5244 057.3111 0021996 327.4448 032.5417 14.81895149388424 
is presently the most spectacular flasher of the C* 1933 family, at least 
according to the reports which have reached me. 
 
Credit is due to Goddard OIG, Ted Molczan, and TS Kelso for elsets and to 
Mike McCants for the highly effective QuickSat which makes it easy to see 
many satellites in a brief interval. 
 
Cheers. 
 
--- 
 
Astronomy is looking up.