Hi All, Finally got a chance to do some observing last night. Since TDF-1 is getting too low for Ed & Mike, I figured I'd take the handoff and get a few measurements before it's too low for me in California. TDF-1 (#19621, 88-098A) continues to spin up. Measured period was 30.907 +/- .004 seconds. PPAS format: From Newport Coast, CA [33.6028 N, 117.8263 W, 200m] TDF-1, #19621 88-098A 00-03-02 06:25 RM 401.79 0.05 13 30.907 mag +2 --> inv As Mike, Ed and Don have indicated, the flashes are a bit complicated on this bird -- there are definitely two panels that have pointing normals that are only a couple degrees apart -- this causes double flashes separated by about 0.3 seconds for a portion of the flash sequence. Flashes are also visible on the half-period, indicating reflections from the back side of one of the panels. Using measurements from myself, Ed Cannon, Mike McCants and Don Gardner, I've come up with a spin axis of: R.A. 14.6809 hours, Dec +62.8945, cone angle 86.35 degrees. This axis causes the flashes each night to travel from south to north, and occur roughly 12 minutes later each night (as Ed and Mike mentioned). Flashes are currently visible anywhere in the western states, starting in California, Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas, and ending in northern Canada some 18 minutes later. (Southern border of U.S. should start at ~6:30 UT on 3/3/2000). --Rob ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Mar 02 2000 - 17:08:07 PST