J.C. Millot wrote: >=20 > Hi Alan, >=20 > (who answered me directly because he could not reach the See-Sat list f= rom > his office) >=20 > and thanks for the fast answer. >=20 > ---------- > > De : Alan Pickup <A.Pickup@roe.ac.uk> > > A : papou@canl.nc > > Cc : alan@wingar.demon.co.uk > > Objet : Lewis decay > > Date : mardi 30 septembre 1997 20:07 > > > > Hello Papou, > > > > I'm delighted to get your report but I'm at work and unable from here > > to post to SeeSat-L. A quick check implies that Lewis should, indeed, > > have passed over or close to Noumea on that orbit at the time you say. > > Please go ahead and gather as many reports from witnesses as you can > > since it does appear that this is an important decay event. If you ca= n > > gather altitude/azimuth info for the track then that should help to > > estimate its altitude and confirm the identity. >=20 > I will try to gather further reports. The more serious one I got is fro= m a > guy driving on the small highway coming into Noumea City, in a suburb n= amed > Koutio. >=20 > The exact position should be 22d13S and 166d27E >=20 > His saw the object "high on the east and going down to the south". That > seem to fit well with some predictions I made with "Ident" software fro= m > Alphonse Pouplier with the last elset you gave on the list. >=20 > File: LEWIS.DAT > Place: KOUTIO > Lo.(DDDMM East):16627 La.(=F1DDMM):-2213 > Date (DDMMYY): 280997 > >From 5 min. before till 5 min. after 1129 (HHMM UT) > Every 10 sec. > Field of diameter 180 =F8 centered on: > Azimuth: 180 =F8 > Altitude: 90 =F8 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >=20 > Lewis 1 24909U 97044A > 28/ 9/1997 11h25m50s Az.: 17 Alt.: 1 > 28/ 9/1997 11h26m 0s Az.: 18 Alt.: 1 > 28/ 9/1997 11h26m10s Az.: 18 Alt.: 2 > 28/ 9/1997 11h26m20s Az.: 18 Alt.: 3 > 28/ 9/1997 11h26m30s Az.: 19 Alt.: 4 > 28/ 9/1997 11h26m40s Az.: 20 Alt.: 5 > 28/ 9/1997 11h26m50s Az.: 21 Alt.: 6 > 28/ 9/1997 11h27m 0s Az.: 22 Alt.: 8 > 28/ 9/1997 11h27m10s Az.: 23 Alt.: 10 > 28/ 9/1997 11h27m20s Az.: 25 Alt.: 12 > 28/ 9/1997 11h27m30s Az.: 27 Alt.: 15 > 28/ 9/1997 11h27m40s Az.: 31 Alt.: 19 > 28/ 9/1997 11h27m50s Az.: 36 Alt.: 24 > 28/ 9/1997 11h28m 0s Az.: 46 Alt.: 32 > 28/ 9/1997 11h28m10s Az.: 65 Alt.: 41 > 28/ 9/1997 11h28m20s Az.: 100 Alt.: 48 > 28/ 9/1997 11h28m30s Az.: 136 Alt.: 42 > 28/ 9/1997 11h28m40s Az.: 156 Alt.: 32 > 28/ 9/1997 11h28m50s Az.: 167 Alt.: 24 > 28/ 9/1997 11h29m 0s Az.: 172 Alt.: 19 > 28/ 9/1997 11h29m10s Az.: 176 Alt.: 15 > 28/ 9/1997 11h29m20s Az.: 178 Alt.: 12 > 28/ 9/1997 11h29m30s Az.: 180 Alt.: 10 > 28/ 9/1997 11h29m40s Az.: 182 Alt.: 8 > 28/ 9/1997 11h29m50s Az.: 183 Alt.: 7 > 28/ 9/1997 11h30m 0s Az.: 184 Alt.: 5 > 28/ 9/1997 11h30m10s Az.: 184 Alt.: 4 > 28/ 9/1997 11h30m20s Az.: 185 Alt.: 3 > 28/ 9/1997 11h30m30s Az.: 185 Alt.: 2 > 28/ 9/1997 11h30m40s Az.: 186 Alt.: 2 > 28/ 9/1997 11h30m50s Az.: 186 Alt.: 1 > 28/ 9/1997 11h31m 0s Az.: 186 Alt.: 0 >=20 > I will try to have more info from this guy and I will ask the local med= ias > for some more witnesses tomorrow morning as it is now 20:51 local time >=20 > I will put all the info I gather on the See-Sat list as well as on the > Alphonse french list. >=20 > > > > As a resident of "Old Caledonia", I would be very pleased if my SatEv= o > > calculation and speculation is vindicated by observers in New Caledon= ia > > :-) >=20 > New Caledonia was named by Captain Cook when he discovered the main isl= and > on September 4th, 1774 because what he saw at the first glance reminded= him > of his land of birth, Caledonia. Of course when he got closer the day > after, he saw that there were white sand beaches, coconut trees and > melanesian people living on the island. -:) >=20 > Jean-Christophe 'Papou' Millot - Computer and Network Consultant > from Noumea - New Caledonia (22d16 S, 166d27E) UT+11 > email : papou@canl.nc home page : http://www.chez.com/papou > Association Caledonienne d'Astronomie : http://www.mygale.org/09/ascala= / I was very intersted in this feedback from the last Lewis orbit.=20 I have become quite facinated with decaying objects recently. This is thanks to Alan Pickup and his Satevo program and predictions.=20 This last weekend I followed the last orbits of the Lewis satellite, collecting element sets and running decay predictions. I took the last element set from OIG for Lewis, for orbit 577, and pluged it into STS-Plus and hey presto....the observations of Papou Millott agree to within a few seconds of the direction, altitude and azimuth of the decaying satellite. I have included the STS-Plus output below. Lewis Orbit 577 NORAD #24909 element set Lewis 147 x 144 km 1 24909U 97044A 97271.44446403 .42558223 17556+1 79870-3 0 91500 2 24909 97.5423 169.9633 0002314 165.7839 194.2226 16.47663106 5777 Station Koutio 166.27E -22.13S At 0 deg elev 9/28/1997 11:26:17 UTC range 1341.81 km Azm 15.85 lat -10.69S long 169.73E At 50 deg elev 9/28/1997 11:28:59 UTC range 184.54 km Azm 65.76 lat -21.79S long 167.46E (closest pass) At 56 deg elev 9/28/1997 11:29:08 UTC range 171.72 km Azm 103.02 lat -22.41S long 167.33E The Los Angeles Times reported (from the U.S. Space Command) the exact re-entry to be 11:58 UTC as the spacecraft was heading north again still on orbit 577. The exact location of re-entry was given as somwhere in the South Atlantic off the coast of Antartica. Facinating. I guess my question would be, as a novice, how long do these things generally stay up afer starting to burn up, as I am assuming Lewis was doing over New Caledonia. This particular case would have Lewis burning up for about 30 minutes or so (about a third of an orbit). Is this normal? Jeremy Ollerenshaw jolleren@ix.netcom.com