unknown co-orbital with C* 2322 r??
Walter Nissen (dk058@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Thu, 18 Jan 1996 16:43:18 -0500
> Date: Wed Nov 29 20:10:33 1995
> Subject: Unusual satellite pair
> Reply-To: Jeff.Guerber@gsfc.nasa.gov
> I recently observed an unusual pair of satellites, and I thought
> it would be interesting to know what they were. I happened to be
> looking at delta Ursae Majoris (I *think* that's the star that was in
> the field of view -- I was having some trouble aiming the scope) when
> a satellite flew through the FOV, which is about 1.5 deg. It was
> about the same brightness as the star, making it about mag. 2 or 3,
> and was blinking quickly, about 2 - 4 times a second. After following
> it for a while with the scope (4.25" f/4 Newtonian), I looked up and
> saw that it was preceded by another satellite, on the same path, about
> 5 degrees ahead, possibly somewhat more. This object was about the
> same magnitude, but was *not* blinking. I followed them for several
> minutes, naked-eye and with 7x50 binoculars, eventually losing sight
> of them in the vicinity of Leo's midsection. This was November 25,
> 1995, about 9:55 UT, from Albrightsville, PA, approx. 40d 59' N, 75d
> 33' W (from the Carbon County PA topographic map).
> I would guess that this was probably a satellite trailed by its
> tumbling rocket body, but can you identify them more specifically?
> Thanks!
I then dropped the ball on this correspondence for more than a month and
eventually identified C* 2322 r as the presumptive candidate for the
flasher. My elset file of 1000 bright objects failed to pop up a
candidate for the leading object.
Jeff and I would appreciate any further suggestions, especially from those
of you with larger files of elsets.
I append a few elsets, in case they may prove useful.
Thanks.
Cheers.
Walter Nissen dk058@cleveland.freenet.edu 1-216-243-4980
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I get into enough trouble without a tagline!
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>From OIG:
23704
1 23704U 95058A 95326.22723897 -.00000029 00000-0 10000-4 0 109
2 23704 71.0188 346.3716 0002010 18.1957 341.9240 14.12560526 3027
23705
1 23705U 95058B 95326.13252972 -.00000047 00000-0 00000+0 0 127
2 23705 71.0220 346.4560 0010319 57.0639 303.1465 14.14149262 3013
23706
1 23706U 95058C 95326.13527034 +.00000141 +00000-0 +17524-3 0 00387
2 23706 071.0035 349.2704 0201589 040.7127 320.8840 13.71666651002921
23707
1 23707U 95058D 95326.08581193 -.00000041 +00000-0 +00000-0 0 00353
2 23707 071.0041 349.4157 0205301 063.1948 298.9998 13.70142392002917
23708
1 23708U 95058E 95326.16786101 -.00000042 +00000-0 +00000-0 0 00260
2 23708 071.0570 349.6622 0186903 042.3346 319.2014 13.74262788002979
23709
1 23709U 95058F 95326.12929889 -.00000041 +00000-0 +00000-0 0 00257
2 23709 071.0452 349.7766 0199904 068.6834 293.5475 13.72046036002921
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>From Ted Molczan:
C* 2322 6.0 2.0 0.0 5.9
1 23704U 95058 A 95335.14985176 .00000137 00000-0 73799-4 0 439
2 23704 71.0180 327.7198 0002999 352.6517 7.4559 14.12562964 4284
C* 2322 r 10.4 3.9 0.0 4.6
1 23705U 95058 B 95335.46958675 -.00000184 00000-0 -96257-4 0 167
2 23705 71.0072 326.8777 0010875 33.6524 326.5283 14.14145833 4333