[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: (meteorobs) Not a point meteor



Ed Cannon, and All,
Thanks for the message about Telstar 401! I believe I saw it the other night
while watching for Leonids. It was in northern Puppis for me, and I only saw
it flash a couple of times, but I couldn't figure out what it was, as it
looked like an aircraft strobe but only flashed every few seconds (more
often than every 167 seconds). It was quite faint, about 4th magnitude. It
didn't seem to move much but quit flashing before I could get my telescope
on it. It sounds somewhat but not exactly like your description. How far out
is its orbit and where are you describing observing it from? There would be
parallax to consider wouldn't there? Very weird and I wonder what
astronomers think of it. What is the purpose of having a slow moving flasher
up there? I'd be bummed if I was observing with very expensive telescope
time and it moved through a field I was observing 25th mag quasars in...!!!
John Sanford
Starhome Observatory
Sierra Foothills
----- Original Message -----
From: Ed Cannon <ecannon@mail.utexasdot edu>
To: <meteorobs@jovian.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2000 1:10 AM
Subject: (meteorobs) Not a point meteor


> Just a note to mention to North American (and possibly Central
> and South American) observers that there's currently a brightly
> flashing geosynchronous satellite to be aware of so as not to
> think it's a point meteor.  It's Telstar 401, and for the time
> being it's flashing possibly as bright as zero magnitude (+1
> for sure) in the southern part of Orion for a while around 8:30
> to 9:30 UTC (position and time period vary somewhat depending
> on your location).  The flashes occur one every 167.8 seconds.
> If you see it, the flashes will appear to drift slowly (rate of
> .25 degree per minute) from west to east through Orion.  From
> latitude 30 north it goes a couple of degrees north of Rigel to
> just north of the sword and then to the east of the belt (near
> if not within Monoceros) before it quits flashing for the night.
> It may continue to do this for some time, four minutes earlier
> per night.
>
> Congratulations to all who had the good fortune to see Leonids!
> There was little to no chance of seeing them in much of Texas
> other than the panhandle due to totally cloudy weather.  Geminds
> -- full Moon.  Have high hopes for Quadrantids!
>
> Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexasdot edu - Austin, Texas, USA
> http://wwwvms.utexasdot edu/~ecannon/meteorlinks.html
>
> To UNSUBSCRIBE from the 'meteorobs' email list, use the Web form at:
> http://www.tiacdot net/users/lewkaren/meteorobs/subscribe.html
>

To UNSUBSCRIBE from the 'meteorobs' email list, use the Web form at:
http://www.tiacdot net/users/lewkaren/meteorobs/subscribe.html

References: