At 17:02 20/05/04, Kent Yeglin wrote: >Looked for the three geo sats Ed Cannon reported in his informative 5/17 report: Gorizont 13, ASC 1 and GStar 3. Using my 7x50, I observed Gorizont 13 in the position predicted by SatSpy 4.0 and with the parameters described by Ed: 86 sec. period, +4 mag. While hunting the other two sats, I observed an object flashing with a 72 sec. period and an estimated +2.5 magnitude (observed naked eye) at the following coordinates (these should be accurate to within about 10 arc minutes): > >04-05-19 05:46:57 UTC: RA 14h 9m 41s DEC -2.1 >04-05-19 05:59:00 UTC: RA 14h 21m 34s DEC -2.5 >04-05-19 06:23:00 UTC: RA 14h 45m 23s DEC -3.4 > >My predictions for ASC 1 and GStar 3 put them just out of the FOV to the east at these times. I did not see them at their predicted positions. The only sat that fits the observed position is Aussat K2 (85-109C, 16275). I haven't seen any references to any of the Aussats flashing, so I'm doubful that's what I saw. My elsets for the sats in question were less than four days old. > >I attempted a reobservation this evening for 45 min. up until 05:00 and saw no geosats (did have two LEOs come through the FOV, though). Was unable to observe at the same times as last evening due to encroachment of the coastal fog. > > > >Site: 37.830N, 122.262W, 40m > >Regards, > >Kent Yeglin >Oakland, CA, USA Kent, Cant comment on Satspy for GEO , GEOnear as I havent used it . However FINDSAT says your first observation was within 9 seconds and 0.0 degrees of 16275 , so I would say the identification is made. AUSSAT K2 belongs to an Australian company, Optus, which is currently controlled by the Singapore telcom company. It is of course an interesting question , who owns abandoned comsats, with regard to legal responsibility, if they are not regarded as assets in the sale of companies. Tony Beresford ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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