unknown

by way of tcools@pophost.innet.be (tcools@pophost.innet.be)
Sun, 22 Oct 1995 11:36:47 +0100

Last night I saw a unknown satellite moving from approximately  theta Dra 
in the direction of gamma Umi were it disappeared(in the Earth's shadow ?).
The satellite had an orange colour and could be seen with the naked eye,
magnitude was estimated to +3.  As it was moving rather fast I thought this
satellite could be in a 500 km orbit.
Here below you see a possible candidate for this observation.  However I 
thought the satellite I saw was moving in a more northerly direction.  I 
also think that 79093A couldn't be so bright and there is no indication that
it went into the Earth's shadow at the position of gamma Umi.(maybe 79093A
was in a slow tumble but the object I saw disappeared rather fast)

Are there any other candidates ?


                              TRAKSAT  Version 2.80 

                    Tracking Station:  BRUGES,BELGIUM     
                        [ Line Of Sight (LOS) Visibility ] 
                              Satellite: 79093  A         

                              Satellite Data Set:
     1 11600U 79093  A 95283.16045139  .00000556  00000-0  30298-4 0  4797 
     2 11600  81.2575 321.5937 0005366 131.4110 228.7576 15.12773635869919 


     Date    Time (UTC)   Azim     Elev   Range    Ra        Dec        Alt  
             HR:MN:Sec    Deg      Deg    Km       HH:MM:SS  DD:MM:SS   Km   
                               -- Rev # 87168 --
 Sat 21Oct95 19:23:00.0   204.56   1.78   2461.51  19:36:01 -33:06:12   530 
 Sat 21Oct95 19:24:00.0   206.92   6.19   2054.09  19:33:08 -28:10:31   530 
 Sat 21Oct95 19:25:00.0   210.43  11.80   1654.75  19:27:55 -21:44:05   531 
 Sat 21Oct95 19:26:00.0   216.30  19.57   1273.52  19:18:37 -12:26:56   531 
 Sat 21Oct95 19:27:00.0   228.08  31.30    935.32  19:00:49 +02:39:44   532 
 Sat 21Oct95 19:28:00.0   258.26  46.87    707.14  18:20:50 +28:44:54   533 
 Sat 21Oct95 19:29:00.0   314.17  47.04    706.29  16:22:20 +60:11:39   533 
 Sat 21Oct95 19:30:00.0   344.35  31.56    933.26  12:08:02 +67:15:23   534 
 Sat 21Oct95 19:31:00.0   356.16  19.82   1270.65  10:10:45 +58:31:26   534 
 Sat 21Oct95 19:32:00.0     2.07  12.04   1651.11  09:31:12 +50:51:14   535 
 Sat 21Oct95 19:33:00.0     5.63   6.43   2049.57  09:13:18 +45:02:08   536 
 Sat 21Oct95 19:34:00.0     8.05   2.02   2455.96  09:03:37 +40:24:18   536 


Tristan Cools(tcools@nic.INbe.net at 5113N and 0316E)