Re: Sat track photo
Randy John (skysat@home.com)
Fri, 24 Sep 1999 02:30:15 -0000
----- Original Message -----
stuff deleted...
> On the contrary, the two clearest "satellite trails" pass over the two
> brightest stars in the nebula to better than 1 minute of arc and deviate
> from exactly N-S by less than 1 degree (possibly much less).
Although the brightest stars in the nebula are Theta-1 and -2
(mag 5), the brightest star in the photograph is 44 Ori (Iota?).
At mag 2.87 if there were going to be any diffraction spikes,
that is where to look. One trail gets kinda close but 'kinda
close' is the same as a miss. There is also a mag 4.67 star
just to the SW of 44 Ori that also has no diffraction spikes.
My best guess is 4 GEO's and 2 "I don't know what's". Rob is
right, nothing went N-S in the indicated time frame. Possibly
the date/time is wrong. Another suggestion. How about the
lights on the tips of the horizontal stabilizer that some
airliners have. Distance between the 'lights' at 30000 feet -
about 25 feet. The red and green lights might be too faint
and the anti-collision light (strobe) could have been off
while in the frame.
Here are the NORAD numbers for the GEO candidates.
15642 Anik C1 (the half track)
21222 Anik E2 (about 18 arc sec above the track of 21726)
21726 Anik E1
22694 Galaxy 4H
22911 Solidaridad 1
23313 Solidaridad 2
It's noteworthy that 15642 was at the center of the frame
at 1:55.
Randy
p.s. NGC 1999 is a small fuzzy star at the right hand edge of
the photo.