Re: Gorizont 23 = 9146A =21533 flash period
Kurt Jonckheere (kjonckheere@mail.unicall.be)
Tue, 17 Feb 1998 22:29:31 +0100 (MET)
Three weeks ago, when Gorizont 23 (accelerating geostationary satellite)
was visible over Australia, Tony Beresford wrote :
>From observation from Adelaide SA (35S,138.6E) centered around 12:45UT Jan 26
>previous obs included for reference
>91-046 A 98-01-25 12:42 ACB 1520.0 0.15 30 50.667
>91-046 A 98-01-26 12:45 ACB 1266.300.14 25 50.652
He calculated the acceleration-rate at that time to be : 0.016 s/Day
As you might remember the acceleration rate has increased during 1997
from 0.007 (August) to 0.011 (December) to 0.016 s/Day.
For some days Gorizont 23 is visible over Europe and this evening
I was able to observe it :
91- 46 A 98-02-17 19:45 KJ 1911.0 0.1 38 50.289
Maximum brightness was about mag +5
(50.652 - 50.289) / 22 days => 0.0165 s/Day
So it seems that the acceleration rate has almost stopped increasing.
This object will be visible for another two weeks, so if you want
to confirm these findings, here are the latest elements
courtesy OIG :
21533
1 21533U 91046A 98031.46426944 -.00000249 00000-0 10000-3 0 401
2 21533 3.7001 66.8637 0007372 93.2542 266.9216 0.98909126 18226
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I also tried 11057 = 78-95 A = Molniya 3-10 but it was probably too
faint (fainter than mag +10).
Remember that in January it was seem by Russell Eberst and myself with
flashes of maximum magnitude of about +4 ! We must have seen flashes
from some very reflective part of the payload...
Now it was low (alt : +25) and nothing was seen.
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Don't forget to send your observations of 1997
happy observing,
Kurt Jonckheere
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Kurt Jonckheere (kjonckheere@unicall.be) 51.2 N 2.9 E 4m ASL
(Old accelerations : http://uc2.unicall.be/kjonckheere/index.htm)
observations collector for the Belgian Working Group Satellites:
Send your observations of flashing satellites, preferrably in the correct
PPAS format to ppas@lists.satellite.eu.org
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