Bright geoflasher "conjubction" on the 14th December 1999
Jason Hatton (Jason.Hatton@unice.fr)
Mon, 13 Dec 1999 10:40:29 +0100 (MET)
I tried sending this message to the list yesterday, but it did not appear
to have arrived. Here is the message again.
----------------
Hi everyone,
An interesting observing opportunity for european observers
will present
itself on the evening of Tuesday 14th December 1999. The bright flashing
geostationary satellite Gorizont 23 will pass within 1/2 a degree of Raduga
27, which is also a bright geoflasher, as it drifts slowly westerwards.
Closest approach will be around 18:30UT, 14th Dec 1999, although both
satellites will be in the same low power field of view throughout the
evening. Both satellites are currently flashing as brightly as mag+5 or
mag+6, so may be visible in binoculars.
Gorizont 23's period is currently around 51s and decreasing, whilsts
Raduga 27's last reported period was 76s and increasing. I glimpsed Raduga
27's flashes using 10x50 binoculars from where I work last week, but did
not manage to get a timing due to the sudden arrival of clouds.
Here are recent elements for both satellites;
Raduga 27
1 21132U 91014A 99340.92455549 +.00000115 +00000-0 +00000-0 0 02802
2 21132 005.5053 066.3636 0005340 200.0200 159.7175 01.00281209032154
Gorizont 23
1 21533U 91046A 99341.81964626 +.00000065 +00000-0 +10000-3 0 01922
2 21533 004.9808 064.0393 0006952 126.7859 233.0105 00.98906043024908
If you do manage to get timings of either satellites flash period please
send your observations to the BWGS flash period database;
ppas@lists.satellite.eu.org
Best wishes & clear skies,
Jason
Jason P Hatton
06200 Nice
France
43.692N, 7.246E,30M
(43d41'29"N,7d14'47"E,30m)
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/1668/high-alt.htm
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