Using stsplus I get the following times for the two satellite starting to enter the earth's shadow GALAXY 11 at 5:19:36 UTC NIMIQ 1 at 5:20:21 UTC That makes them starting to enter the earth shadow less then 2 hours after ED saw them, so looks like they might have started to flare. I don't know how far the satellite would have to be from the earths shadow, before it stars to get brighter. Using the highecl program I get the following times for flaring.For these times the satellite is near or in the earth shadow. *** 2000 Sep 27/28 Wed evening/Thu morning *** Times are UT Hrs Min Alt Azi Mag Hgt R A Dec Range 5 Min Early 25740 NIMIQ 1 ** 4.0 ELDY 2 M2 -1 5 15 54 167 11.9 22245 23 43.6 -5.0 22894 23 44.3 -5.0 1.6 5 20 54 167 11.9 22245 23 48.6 -5.0 22894 23 49.3 -5.0 .3 26038 GALAXY 11 ** 4.0 ELDY 1 M2 -1 5 15 54 166 11.9 22245 23 44.5 -5.0 22896 23 45.2 -5.0 1.4 5 20 54 166 11.9 22245 23 49.5 -5.0 22896 23 50.2 -5.0 .2 See below for how the program calculates the values HighFly Satellite Prediction Program Special "Eclipse" version - Oct 7, 1999 The "Eclipse" version will only generate predictions for objects that are within a "window" near eclipse. The window is 2.5 degrees outside of eclipse to 0.5 degrees inside of eclipse. (The sun is 0.5 degrees in diameter, so the object should disappear completely at an angle of about 0.25 degrees inside of eclipse. This is printed as "-0.2" degrees.) The eclipse angle is printed without a title as the last number on each prediction line. NIMIQ 1 1 25740U 99027A 00270.34619433 -.00000201 00000-0 00000+0 0 2173 2 25740 0.0154 275.6216 0001430 274.4691 208.8424 1.00269995 5015 GALAXY 11 1 26038U 99071A 00271.98608564 -.00000200 00000-0 00000+0 0 4268 2 26038 0.0067 263.9309 0001572 293.0284 74.1354 1.00270977 2918 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ed Cannon" <ecannon@mail.utexas.edu> To: <SeeSat-L@blackadder.lmsal.com> Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 5:07 AM Subject: Flaring geosynch? > For some time I've been generating predictions for Galaxy XI (26038, > 99-071A) after I read how large its solar panels are. (Its length is > more than 40 meters from end to end with the panels deployed). I think > I may have seen it last night with my handheld 10x50 binoculars. The > last three nights have been exceptionally nice here. Last night I was > easily seeing stars fainter than +7.5 -- that is, they were not on the > star charts that I had. I saw the object at about RA 22:20, Dec. -5 > (2000) at about 3:55 Sept. 28 UTC. It was probably +7.0 at the > brightest, and it was definitely not a fixed star, because at first it > was between two stars (42 and 51 Aquarii) but changed position slowly. > The only other one very near that position was Nimiq 1 (25740, 99-027A, > which also is a pretty large satellite). Anyway, I'm wondering if this > was a case of looking at the right time to see either of these flaring > as has been discussed here from time to time. > Observing location: 30.314N, 97.866W, 280m. > > Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' > in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org > http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Sep 28 2000 - 07:39:35 PDT