Re: ATLAS CENTAUR R/B (#10779U)

From: Russ Bessom (russbessom@desurf.com)
Date: Tue Sep 17 2002 - 11:03:44 EDT

  • Next message: Björn Gimle: "Re: ATLAS CENTAUR R/B (#10779U)"

    Sorry Ed, Ron, Paul, Tony and Bjorn. The TLE should read this:
    
    ATLAS CENTAUR R/B
    1 10779U 78035B   02257.73220007  .00000031  00000-0 -76567-4 0  8892
    2 10779  21.1004 139.9938 7194749 286.6874  10.7560  2.22540672198645
    
    And instead of calling it a geoflasher, I'll call it a sat with an orbit
    eccentricity of .7194749
    And Bjorn, I'm confused.  If the sat is spinning one revolution and flashes,
    and it takes 4.66 seconds to complete another revolution and flashes again,
    wouldn't that be 12.88 RPM?  Or is the satellite showing me two reflective
    surfaces per revolution and I must divide by two?  Help!
    Thanks again for catching my goofs!  Next time, I'll wait till the next
    morning to give details  ; )
    Russ
    
    
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "Ed Cannon" <ecannon@mail.utexas.edu>
    To: <russbessom@desurf.com>
    Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 5:30 AM
    Subject: Re: ATLAS CENTAUR R/B (#10779U)
    
    
    > [private message]
    >
    > Monday, Sept. 16 (local time)
    >
    > Hi Russ,
    >
    > I wanted to follow up on your message to SeeSat-L about the neat
    > Atlas Centaur 10779 (78-035B).  In the message you accidentally
    > included elements for a different object (04069, 69-069B) -- one
    > that it seems I've never seen, so I'm hoping to see it of course.
    >
    > On another note, just semantics, my understanding is that "geo"
    > most commonly means objects which orbit with a period more or
    > less near one day.  (The exact value of geostationary ones is
    > close to 1.0027.)
    >
    > Clear, dark nights--
    >
    > Ed C. - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA
    >
    > > Observed Geo Flasher: ATLAS CENTAUR R/B (#10779U) about 40 degrees
    > > high in the SW.  16 Sep 02 From 20:45 to 21:30 UTC. An easy target
    > > with big binos at 37x. I followed it for about 45 minutes cruising
    > > through Ophiuchus.  I got timings for about half that time,  To
    > > the best of my timings, it looks like it's flashing 4.66 seconds
    > > between maximas for a 12.88 RPM spin rate.  It looks like a mag 10
    > > to 10.5 and it looked like it was about 30 to 45 seconds too fast,
    > > which put it about 7 arc minutes in front of this elset:
    > > ATLAS CENTAUR R/B
    > > 1 04069U 69069B   02255.33908368 -.00000010  00000-0  10000-3 0  3971
    > > 2 04069  17.5133  86.3333 6677448 210.5256  83.2775  2.04791399247526
    > > All in all a very interesting fast flasher.  This is the fastest geo
    > > flasher I've seen.  Maybe it's normal for a R/B.
    >
    
    
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