ETS 6 (94-056A) easy at about 38,000 km

From: Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Date: Wed Oct 29 2003 - 05:23:44 EST

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    ETS 6 (94-056A, 23230) was out around apogee, but it was in an
    easy location (about RA 0:35, Dec -4.5 [2000]) so I thought I'd 
    try to see it.  It was easy (in 10x50s, though I was not able 
    to see any of them without the binoculars).  It continued to be 
    easy for more than half an hour.  Of course I don't know when 
    it began flashing so brightly, and I don't know when it stopped 
    because I ran out of stopwatch clicks and was getting chilly, 
    tired, and hungry.  PPAS report (but it was still easy at 04:32):
    
    94- 56 A 03-10-29 04:17:40   EC 1815.8 0.2 194  9.360 +4.0->inv
    
    Here are two previous PPAS from a different pass (in the WSW, 
    roughly RA 20:50 +5, instead of the SSE) seen twice recently:
    
    94- 56 A 03-10-21 03:18:57   EC  433.3 0.2  46  9.418 +4.5->inv
    94- 56 A 03-10-24 04:01:18   EC 1155.8 0.2 123  9.397 +4.5->inv
    
    But this time I got these five successive sets of 10 cycles each: 
    93.58, 93.61, 93.58, 93.56, 93.65.  So it appears to be speeding
    up currently.  It seemed to me tonight that maybe one of four 
    flashes was the brightest and one was the faintest, maybe like 
    +4.0, +4.5, +4.5, +5.0.
    
    ETS 6
    1 23230U 94056A   03300.63266776 -.00000097 +00000-0 +10000-3 0 01671
    2 23230 011.7186 185.9927 4964684 353.4072 002.1584 01.67093218056055
    
    So it will very nearly repeat the same SSE pass on Halloween 
    (early November 1 UTC), and it will repeat the WSW pass tonight 
    (10/30 UTC).
    
    The flash period of Galaxy 7 (22205) also is speeding up:
    
    92- 72 A 03-10-29 02:50:07.5 EC 2035.3 0.2  10 203.53 +1.5->inv
    92- 72 A 03-10-18 03:24:10   EC 1227.2 0.5   6 204.5  +3.0->inv
    
    10/29/2003 site was E. Ney Museum grounds, 30.307N, 97.727W, 150m.
    
    Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA
    
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