TRMM and TRMM H2 r2 obs
ROB MATSON (ROBERT.D.MATSON@cpmx.saic.com)
25 Feb 1998 12:12:24 -0800
Hi All,
Had a nice little observing session early this morning (Wednesday, 25 Feb =
1998). Observed TRMM (#25063) come out of shadow a little after 5:08am
PST (13:08 UTC), more than 60 degrees up in the west, on way to a
zenith pass. Peak magnitude was about 0.5. I timed its closest approach
to Vega at 5:09:39, so it was running 36 seconds late using the following
element set:
TRMM 5.0 4.0 0.0 3.5 v
1 25063U 97074A 98049.74967874 .00055123 00000-0 37036-3 0 1085
2 25063 34.9914 207.4300 0001123 315.4511 44.6136 15.74027229 13053
Just a couple minutes later, I had a nice magnitude -4.5 flare from =
Iridium 12
near the head of Scorpius.
I tried to find Cosmos 1043 making a low pass in the east around 5:22am,
but I got outside too late, and was unable to get set up on a good
reference star in time.
Finally, in the bright pre-dawn sky, I timed TRMM H2 r2 (#25066) =
screaming
across the polar constellations from 5:42 to 5:43. I timed three =
separate
conjunctions with stars, and found the track to be dead-on, but two =
seconds
early, using the following Alan Pickup propagated elements:
TRMM H2 r2 13.5 2.5 0.0 4.2 v
1 25066U 97074D 98056.31044074 .04687266 11711-1 22221-2 0 91316
2 25066 34.9880 159.2637 0007681 66.2744 293.8059 16.20242484 14113
(Nice job, Alan!) Peak brightness was around +0.5. --Rob