mbartley wrote: > USA 193 was nearly 5 minutes earlier than heavens-above's > prediction for southern California tonight. Little surprise > for 5 day old orbital elements. > > It passed roughly 1/4 degree north of the star beta Canis > Major at Feb. 16 02:35:0.9.2. > > It was fainter than predicted on heavens-above. I could only > see it through binoculars, though naked eye limiting > magnitude was probably only around 3 or so. Thank you for your observation. Unfortunately, the object you observed was not USA 193. You saw the 2nd stage of the Delta rocket that launched the Meteosat 1 weather satellite in 1977 (77108B / 10490). Predicted magnitude was 5.3 +/- 2, much fainter than USA 193, as you noted. The prediction uncertainty of USA 193 was 1 to 2 min, so an object running 5 min early would have been doubtful. There is a lot of junk in orbit. You have good passes on the next few nights, should you wish to try again. > Also while looking out for USA 193, my father saw a flashing > object which I never was able to find myself. Our best > estimates are that it was about 2 degrees west of Rigel, that > it flashed three times, about 2 or 3 seconds between flashes, > moving east roughly 1/4 degree between flashes, and no > noticeable color. Any idea what that was? So far, it remains unidentified. Do you recall how many minutes earlier it was than your obs of 77108B? Ted Molczan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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