Re: Possible New Naked Eye GEO Flasher
Mike McCants (mikem@freeside.fc.net)
Mon, 1 Mar 1999 11:08:46 -0600 (CST)
>the satellites overhead. They called tonight (28 Feb 99) to tell me
>about one they spotted. They initially saw it about 7:30 CST close to
>Orion's belt. Unlike the usual ones that they spot, this one is moving
>very slowly in a generally West to East direction.
Of course any geosync will appear to move slowly relative to the stars
as the stars move 15 degrees per hour east to west.
>It appears to be
>tumbling slowly and only shows as a flash of light about every 5
>minutes.
Of course Yuri 3A (BS-3A) will have a period of 4.5 minutes if one
sees only the first of the two bright flashes.
>They called me after watching 3 flashes and I watched it for
>another half hour or so. Even after a hour or so it had only moved
>about the distance of two of Orion's belts
Or else Orion moved - setting in the west.
>Any idea what this one is?
Unless you have a time/position indicating otherwise, my idea is that
this is Yuri 3A. Watch for it again tonight and time it when it
goes by the Orion Nebula. (But that won't be until 10PM or so, so
perhaps this is a different object. Ed keeps seeing flashes up there.)
Or, of course, if you measure a flash period which is inconsistent
with Yuri 3A, then that would be indicative.
(I assume this was a post to the illegal newsgroup having to do
with noticing flashes in the sky?)
Mike McCants