(meteorobs) strange sight in Pegasus

Andy Smith andy-mobs at television.f9.co.uk
Sat Aug 14 18:41:34 EDT 2004


2 messages forwarded as found in the SEE-SAT mail-list:

#1
NOAA 13 (93-050A, 22739) did a spectacular series of seven or eight
bright double flashes (about .20-.25 second separation) as it went down
in the north, well past culmination.  The brightest maxima were probably
-2. Its flash period is around 15 seconds.

MDS 1 (02-003A, 27367) did two or three very bright flashes in the
southeast, probably would have been visible without binoculars.

Molniya 3-42 (92-067A, 22178) was visible without binoculars high in the
south, flashes to at least +3.

BCRC, August 14 UTC (Friday evening Aug 13 CDT).

Ed Cannon - ecannon at mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA

#2
While looking for Cosmos 2217 last night, I was startled by very bright
flashes from an object that I later identified as Molniya 3-42.

The flashes were magnitude 2 or 3 with a period of 7.5 seconds as seen
in a 12x80 finder scope.  The Molniya was about magnitude 10.5 between
flashes in a 20cm telescope.

About 3:31, both objects were in the same field of view about 1/2 degree
apart as the Cosmos (magnitude 9-10 varying slowly) overtook the
Molniya.

Molniya 3-42
1 22178U 92067A   04218.72890936  .00000000  00000-0  10000-3 0 8402 2
22178  63.8335 103.3614 7165971 255.0449  21.8438  2.00617076 86530
Cosmos 2217 1 22189U 92069A   04218.76720166  .00000051 00000-0  00000+0
0   242 2 22189  66.9918 102.2035 6704475 233.3214 44.9342  2.00974483
86420

Lat 30.314 N Long 97.866 W    2004 Aug 13 Times are UT

22178 Molniya 3-42   92 67A    19 M 4.5
 Mag Hrs Min Alt Azi    Hgt  Range    R  A    Dec
 9.8   3  30  76 242   5795   5862  17 31.5  23.1
 9.5   3  35  71 215   5069   5187  17 45.5  14.4

22189 Cosmos 2217    92 69A    17 M 4.5
 Mag Hrs Min Alt Azi    Hgt  Range    R  A    Dec
 9.1   3  30  76 244   4376   4437  17 29.7  23.5
 8.7   3  35  67 204   3737   3895  17 51.1   8.8

Mike McCants
Austin, TX
-- 
Andy Smith



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