Re: Flaring geosynch?

From: Kevin Fetter (kfetter@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Sep 28 2000 - 07:40:27 PDT

  • Next message: Wayne Hughes: "CORRECTION 26 SEP 2000: 99023B"

    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
    >
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