88-080B tumble/flash obs; John Locker's photo

From: Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Date: Sun Mar 10 2002 - 02:38:05 EST

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    Earlier tonight (2002 March 10 UTC) I timed what I'm 
    pretty sure was 88-080B (19468, Feng Yun 1 Rk) and got a 
    rough tumble period of 11.3 seconds:
    
    88- 80 B 02-03-10 01:21:54.6 EC   68.0 3.0   6 11.3   mag +5.0->inv
    
    It apparently isn't observed very often and has done some 
    mysterious things in the past, e.g., a message from Kurt 
    Jonckheere back in 1996:
    
    http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Jun-1996/0040.html
    
    Before we were clouded out, Mike McCants had found at 
    least seven flaring geosynchs.
    
    Observing site was BCRC: 30.315N, 97.866W, 280m.
    
    Regarding John Locker's peculiar track, the URL of the 
    page with the photo is:
    
    http://www.satcom.freeserve.co.uk/satcomunid.htm
    
    I don't have anything but a guess that maybe it might be 
    a drifting balloon.  I think I see a few dots that could
    pass for stationary satellites, but maybe they are just
    spots.
    
    Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA
    
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