Okean O Rocket - still flashing?
Brian Davis
Heavens Above says "very interesting" due to significant variations in
magnitude over a second, but I swa no obvious variation in magnitude
at all (observed 1 Sep 2002 from N. Indiana - nice clear skies, for
once). Anybody?
On a related note, tagged Centaur AC-153 on 4 Sep 2002, and I think
elliptical high-altitude satellites just made my list of "fun objects
to watch". Any other suggestion (esp. any good flashing ones)? I'm
using an 8" Dob from a suburban site, but m=11 is quite doable.
--
Brian Davis
Larry Brash
>
> Does anyone have any recent observations of the Okean O Rocket?
> Heavens Above says "very interesting" due to significant variations in
> magnitude over a second, but I swa no obvious variation in magnitude
> at all (observed 1 Sep 2002 from N. Indiana - nice clear skies, for
> once). Anybody?
Visually, it is hard to see it flashing, but I have photographed it
twice and that shows the variations. The pics needed a little
"photoshopping" (mainly level and contrast adjustment) to enhance the flashing:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~lbrash/satellites/OKean_O_Rocket.jpg
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~lbrash/satellites/OKean_O_Rocket2.jpg
Links to some other shots:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~lbrash/satellites/photos.html
--
Larry Brash
Ed Cannon
It's one of the brightest objects in orbit, but if it's still
tumbling at all, it's very slowly. I've watched it many times
this summer, although now it's just about out of visibility for
a while. The Zenits all seem to slow down and stop tumbling over
time.
> On a related note, tagged Centaur AC-153 on 4 Sep 2002, and
>I think elliptical high-altitude satellites just made my list of
>"fun objects to watch". Any other suggestion (esp. any good
>flashing ones)? I'm using an 8" Dob from a suburban site, but
>m=11 is quite doable.
Many (most?) Centaurs tumble/flash very nicely. Intelsat 4-F4 Rk
(72-003B, 05816) has a 1.56-second flash period. This page needs
to be updated (and word is that it will be in upcoming weeks or
months) but has some very good information:
http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/hattonjasonp/hasohp//CENTAUR.HTML
Jonathan McDowell has a listing of Centaur stages on this page:
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/book/lv/lv1/centaur.html
May I suggest a couple of "unknowns" whose elements can be found
in mccants.tle file. (See http://users2.ev1.net/~mmccants/tles/
to download it.) They have been given pseudo-catalog numbers
90004 (formerly 90907) and 90006. They are in nearly 12-hour
orbits and flash nicely; 90004 flashes every 5 seconds, and 90006
every 10.5 (but maybe on half-periods sometimes). There are no
official elements for these interesting objects. I can see them
occasionally with my 10x50 binoculars (e.g., 90004 on recent good
evenings), but most of the time they require a telescope. USA 136
Rk (25035, 97-68B, a Centaur tumbling just over once per second)
is in a similar orbit. I can see this one also with my 10x50s from
time to time.
Somewhat more challenging is an unclassified Japanese satellite
for which Spacecom for some reason has yet to release elements.
In the mccants.tle file it's called "90012". It flashes every 8
seconds, although some flashes are fainter than others. I have
seen this one in my binoculars. It has a twin that is covered
by Spacecom (27369, 02-003C), which also flashes every 8 seconds.
(They're two halves of a fairing that was released on the
MDS/DASH launch after it achieved orbit.)
Check out Daniel Deak's elements of "disco balls and fast
flashers" (mostly LEOs):
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Sep-2002/0090.html
(Note that Starshine 3 does not flash much at all due to it
rotating very slowly, unfortunately.) EGP/Ajisai is extremely
reliable and easy to find with binoculars, and very interesting.
USA 32 and USA 81 are brothers and on many passes display an
episode of sparkling (extremely rapid flashing) for a few seconds
that often can be seen without magnification. DMSP satellites
flash every 1.9 seconds, but the flashing is not always
observable. (There's a sensor on them that rotates at that rate.
It's probably shaded by the satellite's body part of the time, I
would think.)
FAST (24285, 96-049A) can flash very rapidly, at least sometimes,
and is in an eccentric orbit.
A couple of nice flashing LEO rockets right now are Cosmos 2369
Rk (27437, 02-026B), about 3 seconds, and Feng Yun 1D Rk (27432,
02-024C), getting near 4 seconds. The Ofeq 5 Shavit Rk was a
neat flasher but has re-entered. I will certainly look for any
of its successors.
Oh, also there are a number of tumbling Iridium satellites that
do a lot of flashing on some passes. They include:
24836 Iridium 914
24838 Iridium 9
24842 Iridium 911
24871 Iridium 920
24873 Iridium 921
25078 Iridium 44
25105 Iridium 24
25319 Iridium 69
USA 102 (23031, 94-017B), NOAA 7 (12553, 81-059A), and SPOT 3
(22823, 93-061A) are three other LEO flashers.
Two more in very high orbits that sometimes flash spectacularly
are ETS 6 (23230, 94-056A) and Raduga 33 (23794, 96-010A). They
can be seen from time to time without binoculars!
Telstar 402 (23249, 94-058A) was stranded in the wrong orbit and
is tumbling rapidly. On rare occasions I can see it with my
binoculars. Hipparcos, the astronomical satellite, is flashing
(every 8.n seconds last time I saw it, which was at least a
couple of years ago).
Finally, you might want to try to see "flashing geosynchs", which
are tumbling non-operational payloads, mostly in not-quite-synch
orbits (so that they drift). Some can be seen without binoculars
from time to time! Most of them are easy with binoculars -- when
they're flashing. Right now Cosmos 2282 (23168, 94-038A) is
visible nightly flashing to about +4 every 20.8 seconds. It was
just discovered to be flashing a few nights ago. See my Web page
about flashing geosynchs for a list of them:
http://wwwvms.utexas.edu/~ecannon/flashinggeos.html
There's a database on tumbling/flashing satellites; I just wish
that it included catalog numbers as well as international
designations. It's called the PPAS (Photometric Periods of
Artificial Satellites) database and can be found on this site:
http://users.skynet.be/satimage/bwgs/bwgs.htm
Can you tell that I enjoy seeing flashing satellites! But it's
cloudy here tonight.
Ed Cannon - donotspa...@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA
(Remove "donotspam".)
Jason Thorogood
that passed overhead in the right place at the right time was not flashing.
After this a number of months later I was sitting in a pub garden where I
noticed several satellites, one which was flashing. Upon returning home and
looking it up in Heavens-Above the satellite matching the time and place of
the flashing one was the Okean O.
Maybe it needs to be at the right angle or something?
"Ed Cannon" <donotspa...@mail.utexas.edu> wrote in message
news:albvdl$q08$1...@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu...
Ed Cannon
>satellite that passed overhead in the right place at the right
>time was not flashing. After this a number of months later I was
>sitting in a pub garden where I noticed several satellites, one
>which was flashing. Upon returning home and looking it up in
>Heavens-Above the satellite matching the time and place of the
>flashing one was the Okean O.
>Maybe it needs to be at the right angle or something?
That's very possible -- phase angle, the seasonal travel of the
Sun, etc. However, almost all of the Zenits do slow down, so
probably in a year or two it won't be tumbling much.
I forgot to mention one nice LEO tumbling one, the Meteor 3M-1
Rk (27006, 01-056F, another Zenit).
I was motivated to compile a list of Centaurs and a few other
eccentric-orbit objects I've seen, as of 2002/09/07. Some
flash periods are estimated ("~"). "Asymm" means that
secondary flashes were visible but were not on the half-period.
I've seen many of these without magnification and all in 10x50
binoculars. USA 136 Rk is different -- in a Molniya-type
orbit, like 90004 and 90006. (But the speculation is that the
latter two are payloads.) I may not have all of the re-entries.
"CZ" is for "Chang Zheng" ("Long March"). Almost all of the
dates are simply the most recent time I've seen that one --
that I was able to find in my recorded data. The last two,
90004 and 90006, have pseudo-designations assigned by amateur
observers. To my knowledge, they have not been identified with
specific launches (yet).
71-006B, 04882, Intelsat 4-F2 Rk = 5.76 sec 20020825
71-116B, 06779, Intelsat 4-F3 Rk = 18.8 sec 20010425 asymm
72-003B, 05816, Intelsat 4-F4 Rk = 1.56 sec 20020906
73-058B, 06797, Intelsat 4-F7 Rk = 3.27 sec 20000628
76-042B, 08840, Comstar 1 Rk ~ 4.9 sec 20000110
76-073B, 09329, Comstar 2 Rk = 21.1 sec 20000124
77-041B, 10025, Intelsat 4A-F4 Rk = 5.52 sec 20020611
78-016C, 12908, FltSatCom 1 Rk = 12.39 sec 20020603
78-035B, 10779, Intelsat 4A-F6 Rk = 4.60 sec 20010930
80-087B, 12069, FltSatCom 4 Rk ~ 11.7 sec 20020113
80-098B, 12445, Intelsat 502 Rk ~ 15.6 sec 20020808
81-018B, 12363, Comstar 1D Rk = 3.0 sec 19990802 (and 200209)
81-050B, 12497, Intelsat 501 Rk = 6.54 sec 20020603
81-119B, 13007, Intelsat 503 Rk = 15.05 sec 20020114
84-035B, 14900, STTW-T2 CZ-3 Rk = 26.9 sec 20000529 (CZ) all one-power
85-055B, 15874, Intelsat 5-F11 Rk ~ 19? sec 20020817 (or /2)
85-087B, 16102, Intelsat 512 Rk ~ 4.3 sec 20020905
92-013B, 21907, Galaxy 5 Rk = 37.9 sec 20011223 asymm or /2
92-032B, 21990, Intelsat 101 Rk = 4.60 sec 20020126 decayed 20020530
93-015B, 22564, UHF F1 Rk ~ 24? sec 19990715 decayed 20000106
93-056B, 22788, UHF F/O F2 Rk ~ 7.8 sec 20000604
94-035B, 23133, UHF F/O F3 Rk ~ 17.9 sec 20000529 decayed 20010405
94-080B, 23416, DFH-3 Rk ~ 4.7 sec 19980810 (CZ)
97-021B, 24799, DFH3-2 Rk (CZ-3A) ~ 6.5 sec 20020901 (CZ)
97-068B, 25035, USA 136 Rk ~ 1 sec 20020818
98-014A, 25240, Intelsat 806 Rk ~ 10 sec 20010728
98-016B, 25259, UHF F8 Rk ~ 7? sec 20000524
98-058B, 25502, UHF F9 Rk ~ 8? sec 20020814
99-023B, 25725, Milstar 3 Rk ~ 1.5 sec 20020602
99-750A, 90004, Unknown 5.0 sec 20020906
00-596A, 90006, Unknown 10.5 sec 20020120
Ed Cannon - donotspa...@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA