Sighting from Argentina.

From: ruben lianza via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2018 09:16:03 -0300
*Dear Sat observers:*

*I was sent a curious photo of a sighting which looks either a satellite
flare or a meteor fall. The second hypothesis looks easier because **that
night **there were two radiant points (Virginids) exactly in the same
quadrant.*

*I wanted to submit the photo to your keen eyes to see if someone could
help me out to solve this mistery.*

*The picture was taken from coordinates:*
*S 40° 56´53"  - W 68° 12´31"  (From National road 23 south from the town
of Los Menucos, Argentina)*

*General Azimuth:  Northeast quadrant. For the azimuths of the start and
end of the trail please refer to the second attached picture with the
Astrometry obtained by my collaborator Walter Elias.*

*Elevation:  very low above the horizon as you´ll see.*

*The date is 2018 /Apr/1 at 09:01 PM local time (UTC -3, which means 00:01
AM the next day if you use UTC).*


*In this link you´ll find the original picture *
* http://satobs.org/seesat_ref/misc/FOTO_CASO_NELSA_CARMODI.jpg
<http://satobs.org/seesat_ref/misc/FOTO_CASO_NELSA_CARMODI.jpg> *


*Unfortunately it came out a little bit blurred at the beginning of the
exposure (which was 13 second ) and the same blurring of the stars affected
the left tip (beginning of the trail/flare).  The woman/witness and
photographer, said she was preparing her camera for doing night shooting
and all of the sudden she started to see the luminous trail. She
immediately grabbed the camera and took the shot before it was over. The
whole thing lasted for about four seconds (she didn´t say if the camera was
hand held or had resourced to put it on top of a tripod or the top of the
car).  To the four seconds of the trace she photographed, you have to add
perhaps a second or two during which she first saw it and reacted to grab
the camera.*


*I also attached the original picture with the Astrometry (by Walter Elias)*

* http://satobs.org/seesat_ref/misc/FOTO_CASO_NELSA_CARMODI_ASTROMETRIA.jpg
<http://satobs.org/seesat_ref/misc/FOTO_CASO_NELSA_CARMODI_ASTROMETRIA.jpg>
*

*and also a Stellarium simulation for the location, day and time.*
* http://satobs.org/seesat_ref/misc/Stellarium_caso_Nelsa_Carmodi.jpg
<http://satobs.org/seesat_ref/misc/Stellarium_caso_Nelsa_Carmodi.jpg> *


* I found some trouble having my Stellarium able to upload the recent
Iridiums (I know the Iridium constellation has grown up to # 166 by now)
that is why I didn´t find any Iridium in that quadrant, so I didn´t use the
satellite tool in this simulation. *

* I then run a simulation on Orbitron with a freshly updated TLE full
catalog from space-track and it shows for that night that Iridium 113 was
passing East of Argentina at that time. But 113 was too high in the sky for
such an image near the horizon like the one under analysis.  *


*I have thousands of sats in the recently updated TLEs and find it
cumbersome to plot each and every sat on the screen which not only would
saturate the display but also would take hours to find which one had the
West edge of its footprint passing over the location the photo was taken.
If this is the method some of you are using and it bears fruit, I am all
ears !*


*If this trail was caused by a sat flare I would much like to find the
culprit.  Any suggestions will be more than welcome. I would also
appreciate if any of you can help me by sending a list of non-Iridium flare
producers. I read about sporadic cases of some very intense non-Iridium
flares.*


*Thanks in advance for your help and keep up the great job !*

*Best regards*

*Ruben*
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Received on Mon Aug 27 2018 - 07:16:55 UTC

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