In a message dated Mon, 3 Jun 2002 3:00:07 PM Eastern Daylight Time, mmccants@jump.net (Michael McCants) writes: >Last night I happened to spot what I assume is this same object. >It was flashing to magnitude 6 or 7 with a period very nearly >equal to 8 seconds. I tracked it for a while and when I use <cuts> >At this range of 19000 miles, the flashes were about 6 magnitudes >brighter than the background magnitude of 12 or 13. The flashes were -------------------------- The flashes that I observed were, upon further review, probably closer to +6. The Globalstar UNID was brighter by comparison. At any rate they were easy to spot against the background. --------------------------- >not as quick as solar panel flashes from Superbird A - they seemed >to last several tenths of a second. Same as my obs. FWIW I had asked NASDA about the spin rate of MDS-1. This was the response: /////////////////////////////// With regard to Spin rate of MDS-1, the answer you asked about is the followings. MDS-1, called "Tsubasa", rotates around Z axis by 5 rpm (rotates once every 12 seconds). Tsubasa dosen't rotate Sollar Arrey Panel (SAP). Tsubasa rotates itself aquisitioning the SAP to the sun. <cuts> Sincerely, Public Relations Office National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) /////////////////////////////////////// Tonight at my location MDS-1 and 90012 appear to pass along the same track, about 7 minutes (2 to 3 deg of azimuth) apart. It should be interesting to see if MDS-1 has a surface that will flash at 12 second intervals and 90012 flashing at 8 second intervals. Has anyone observed MDS-1? Cheers, Don Gardner 39.1799 N, 76.8406 W, 100m ASL http://hometown.aol.com/mir16609/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/sat/seesat/seesatindex.html
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