Re: Possible decay obs from Joshua Tree, CA

From: Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Date: Wed Nov 26 2003 - 18:24:11 EST

  • Next message: Mark Hanning-Lee: "Re: Possible decay obs from Joshua Tree, CA"

    Mark Hanning-Lee writes:
    
    >I have been off the list since September, but wanted
    >to share this observation.
    >
    >Saturday 11/22 my wife & I were in Joshua Tree
    >National Park, CA, a few miles S of the W entrance.
    >About long 116.3 W, lat 34.1 N, elevation 920 m. We
    >were looking at sats and Comet Encke, and noticed a
    >striking phenomenon.
    >
    >A group of 3 objects crossed the sky from the West to
    >the south. First saw them in the west about 30 deg
    >high near Altair. (They may have appeared earlier but
    >this was when we noticed them.)
    >At 19:31 local time = 3:31 11/23 UTC.
    >Not timing precisely so +- 1 minute.
    >
    
    I suspect that this is the decay of #28084, Cosmos 2399 deb C. The final
    two elsets that have been published for this are:
    Cosmos 2399 deb C                                226 x 173 km
    1 28084U 03035C   03325.95988775  .05438230  74591-5  11866-2 0   209
    2 28084  64.9122 199.5078 0040600  74.7303 285.8173 16.27502088   532
    Cosmos 2399 deb C                                178 x 144 km
    1 28084U 03035C   03326.93968715  .15227562  77094-5  48605-3 0   264
    2 28084  64.9369 195.7759 0026098  80.6253 280.0384 16.41683098   699
    
    A summary of my final Decay Watch notice is:
    _____________________________________________________________________
    Object: #28084 = 03- 35 C = Cosmos 2399 deb
    Newly catalogued small debris of unknown origin released from the
    Cosmos 2399 Russian military photo-reconnaissance satellite
    launched on August 12, 2003.
    (Dimensions and mass unknown)
    
    Decay predictions:
    Source   Prediction made    Predicted decay at      Latitude Longitude
                   UTC                UTC                  deg      deg
    SCC        Nov 23 03:57     Nov 23 03:28 +-49m       53.4 N   136.6 W
    SatEvo     Nov 24 21:00     Nov 23 04:32 +-2h        34.6 N    83.7 E
    
    Note: Elsets were few and far between, and late to appear. My estimated
    elset for the final equator crossing is:
    Cosmos 2399 deb C                                130 x 116 km
    1 28084U 03035C   03327.18243893  .97901213  15016+2  42593-3 0 90268
    2 28084  64.9326 194.8298 0010552  80.5107 279.6086 16.56364584   735
    _____________________________________________________________________
    
    The orbit before my "final" one is...
    
    Cosmos 2399 deb C                                151 x 128 km
    1 28084U 03035C   03327.12193730  .34446844  10725+1  33300-3 0 90268
    2 28084  64.9344 195.0674 0017324  80.5394 279.6564 16.49949172   722
    
    ...and this, according to Mike McCants's Latlong program, makes a pass
    over Mark's area as follows:
    
             UTC
           Hr Mn Sc   Lat(N)   Long(W)
           3 28  0    40.8    122.4
           3 29  0    37.3    119.7
           3 30  0    33.8    117.3
           3 31  0    30.2    115.2
           3 32  0    26.6    113.2
           3 33  0    22.9    111.3
    
    I also note that it passed through perigee at ~03:15 UTC.
    
    
    Alan
    -- 
    Alan Pickup / COSPAR 2707:  55.8968N   3.1989W   +208m   (WGS84 datum)
    Edinburgh  / SatEvo Home Page:   http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/
    Scotland  / Decay Watch: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/dkwatch/
             *
    
    
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