(meteorobs) -- East GA, April 28/29 correction

Tony Beresford dberesford at adam.com.au
Sat Apr 30 22:47:13 EDT 2005


At 11:10 AM 1/05/05, I wrote:
>Kim,John,
>If you check out Meteor priorada ( catalog number 12585, 1981 65A) with www.hreavens-above.com 
>you will find it wasn't sunlit at your indicated location, only leaving the shadow  about 25 degrees further along the track.
> It would also have been there closer to 23:02 EDT rather than 23:05. I assume Kim's time estimate
>was + or - 2 minutes.
>There were other satellite suspects , but none seem to me to be a likely suspect.
>I found them using Mike McCant's FINDSAT programme.
>
>On seeing Kim's report my first thought was a a glint from one of the tumbling Iridium's,
>but it turns out none were in the vicinity at the time. I have seen these 2 or 3 times myself.
>Just one or sometimes two strobe length flashes, that one wonders if it was  real or something
>internal to ones visual system. They can be mag -7to -8 like iridium flares. However the short
>duration probably lowers the apparent brightness.
>
>Tony B  
I have some corrections to above, my apologies to all,because I asked FINDSAT  one day too late.
As 1981-65A is doing close to 15 revs/day it did pass point at 0305UT on April 29.
However it wasnt sunlit as one can verify. There were still no iridiums tumbling or otherwise.
The only remaining suspects are an old Indian remote sensing satellite 91 61A 21688
which passed about 5 degrees above Castor at 0303UT, and a russian rocket
90 114G 21034 which was also about 5 degrees above Castor at 0304UT.
Kim,you can run these satellites thru heavens-above to see if the 5 degrees corresponds
to your "just above" description.
Tony Beresford



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