According to reliable sources a manned craft that is only visible once a year just after the solstice is again heading toward earth reaching perigee of its polar orbit on December 25th and is likely to enter the earth's atmosphere. It seems to be known as either Santasat (after its captain) or Sleighsat. It will initially pass close to my longitude some time early morning (as we are some of the first in the world to begin December 25th) and then pass over the rest of the world during local darkness. This is not a visible object, and in fact there are believed to be severe penalties for successful observation such as loss of observation of any gifts later in the morning. However it has been rumored that the propulsion module designated "Rudolph" reflects light at the red end of the spectrum and may emit flares. There have been a number of unsuccessful attempts to reconcile the orbit using conventional orbital mechanics but it seems none have come up with a satisfactory explanation for the orbit and for its capacity to land at many selected locations then relaunch. Although the eccentricity of the orbit may be in question that of the pilot appears to be reasonably well established! Further reading on this subject can be found in the following Seesat posts: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Dec-1997/0223.html http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Dec-1996/0117.html http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Dec-2007/0174.html The thread commencing at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Dec-2004/0150.html I hope that some of the payload is jettisoned at your location, and that you are given clear skies. . Most of all I wish you a happy and prosperous season. (As the latest Soyuz R/B is due to decay close to the same time I wonder whether there will be any cases of mistaken identity ;-) Robert Holdsworth Wainuiomata New Zealand 174.948E 41.261S __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4707 (20091221) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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