Re: Identity?

Stephmon@aol.com
Sun, 12 Sep 1999 03:56:30 EDT

In a message dated 9/12/99 12:18:31 AM Eastern Daylight Time, palmer@sfu.ca 
writes:

> Last evening we observed a -8 magnitude Iridium flash
>  at 21:06:38 10 Sep 1999 PDT from Deer Lake, Burnaby, BC
>  (coordinates below). I noticed a second magnitude
>  satellite nearby, in Cygnus, heading ENE and flashing
>  slowly, of the order of ten seconds period, with very
>  deep minima. On checking the GSOC site I found nothing
>  that matched. Can anyone help me with this one?

Globalstar 45 Rocket 1999-019E #25680 (a Soyuz 3rd stage) seems a very likely 
candidate (though the predicted path runs a few degrees SE of actually 
running through Cygnus). Satellite Hunting shows its path running through 
Vulpeculae, parallel to a line drawn between Beta (Albireo) and Epsilon 
Cygnus. Further, the BWGS identifies it as a mag +2 flasher. The period noted 
back in July was 4.16 seconds, but the conditions may have been such, that 
you observed an apparent 8 second period(?)  

Edited Satellite Hunting output...

Local Time  Satellite Name  Sat.#   Elev.   Azimuth Mag
9:03:57 PM  Globlstar 45 r  25680    20°    224° [SW]   4.2
9:06:29 PM  Globlstar 45 r  25680    57°    150° [SE]   2.7
9:08:34 PM  Globlstar 45 r  25680    24°    081° [E]    3.9

>From the BWGS recent observations...
99- 19 E :   18
99-07-18 RO   4.17  +/-0.01           
99-07-18 MJ   4.15  A'A'              
99-07-18 TC   4.16  F'fF'_F', mag +2
_______________________________________
Regards,
Stephen
stephmon@aol.com
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