Re: Unidentified subject!

From: Edward S Light (light@argoscomp.com)
Date: Mon Feb 28 2000 - 11:42:52 PST

  • Next message: nixj@bellsouth.net: "Obs Feb 28, incl. three decayers"

    DeHBeaver0@aol.com recently posted ...
    > 
    > Subject: Re: Unidentified subject!
    > 
    > Satellites cannot travel from East to West! That would be going AGAINST the 
    > earths rotation. You must have seen something else.
    
    One (of many) counterexamples to this statement is the Israeli satellite
    Ofeq 3 (23549 = 95-018A) which is in a 143-degree inclined orbit
    which one can consider to be in a retrograde 37-degree orbit :
    
    Ofeq 3           1.0  0.0  0.0  6.3 v  1.5
    1 23549U 95018A   00058.76384949  .00045892  00000-0  16720-2 0  6464
    2 23549 143.3364 244.7978 0005048 203.1428 156.9088 15.26593412272104
    
    (I imagine the "wrongness" of its direction of travel had to with geo-
    political constraints on the launch direction.)
    
    It is weird to see a fast moving satellite moving the "wrong way". (We
    saw it several times, at an apparent magnitude in the range 5.7-6.7.)
    
    Clear and dark skies!
       Ed Light
    
    Lakewood, NJ, USA
    N 40.1072, W 074.2317, Hgt +21 m (69 ft)
    
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