On Feb 15, 2008, at 9:44 PM, Ted Molczan wrote: > 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. http://www.heavens-above.com/PassDetails.asp? Session=kebgcpabajfifklaogcbhimg&satid=10490&date=39494.1073101389 Wow, with such different orbital inclinations, too. I'm surprised the movement across the sky looked anywhere near the direction I was expecting. It even seemed to enter shadow about where predicted. Maybe it was the limited area of sky I was looking? There are very few identifiable background stars visible elsewhere. > 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. I didn't notice anything else later, though I was only looking naked- eye at that point. > You have good passes on the next few nights, should you wish to try > again. I will. It will be almost directly overhead too, but with a bright moon. >> 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? Sorry, I forgot to post the time. It was roughly 02:28 UTC. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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