Shenzhou 5 would not have been visible from Paul Maley's home in Houston, Texas, so on October 15 at 3h UT, two hours after the launch. he flew to Dallas, Texas, then rented a car and drove to Gene Autrey, Oklahoma (34.3 N, 97.0 W), where he reports observing the Shenzhou rocket at 1125 UT followed 3+ minutes later by Shenzhou 5 itself. Through the courtesy of Ted Molczan and Jim Oberg, Paul was able to get the appropriate info and look angles in order to set up an intercept. Four brightness peaks were observed from the tumbling rocket, with 10.3 seconds between each peak. Shenzhou was tracked for 2.5 minutes, and it also seemed to have variations of either 5 or 10 seconds. A video tape was made of both objects and is being studied for more detail. One interesting coincidence was the appearance of Cosmos 1697 rocket (aka 16182 or 85097B) (identified by Ted Molczan) about 30 seconds before Shenzhou. in nearly the same spot moving in a similar path. The two orbits appeared to cross on the video tape. Ted Molczan, for Paul Maley ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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