Meteor 2-13 and its rocket in close proximity.

Ted Molczan (molczan@fox.nstn.ca)
Sun, 1 Sep 1996 11:11:38 -0400

While looking for a few suitable satellites for an observing 
session tonight with my young niece and nephews, I discovered 
that Meteor 2-13 and its rocket stage will be in close proximity
tonight and tomorrow. The rocket will lead the payload by about
17 s at the 01:14 UTC 2 Sep pass, visible from eastern North
America.

By tomorrow night's pass (01:30 UTC, 3 Sep), the payload will 
have overtaken the rocket stage, leading it by about 1 second.
Observed at high elevation above the horizon, the objects will
be within about 3 deg of each other.

This kind of event is not all that rare, given the large number
of payload-rocket pairs that are in nearly identical orbits,
lapping one another every so often. Still, it can be a neat sight
to see two satellites traveling together in apparent formation.

Observers around the world will have the opportunity to observe
the two objects in varying degrees of proximity tonight and tomorrow. 
Here are their orbital elements:

Meteor 2-13      5.0  1.5  0.0  6.5
1 16408U 85119  A 96242.14091585  .00000018  00000-0  16353-4 0  2319
2 16408  82.5353 286.2549 0017014 111.6979 248.5982 13.84731650539485
Meteor 2-13 r    7.4  2.4  0.0  5.5
1 16409U 85119  B 96242.14004498  .00000003  00000-0  24824-5 0  5249
2 16409  82.5368 286.8472 0015725 120.0392 240.2325 13.84483101539477

Ted Molczan