Subject: AFP-731 observations From: thomsona@netcom.com (Allen Thomson) Date: 1995/09/02 Message-Id: <thomsonaDEA9C9.42A@netcom.com> Newsgroups: sci.space.policy,alt.politics.org.cia,alt.war Russell Eberst has kindly retrieved the observations of AFP-731/1990-019B/NORAD-20516/USA 53 from the archive at Greenwich and has given me permission to post them here. The data are in a reporting format used by visual satellite observers -- I've forgotten what some of the entries are, but have indicated the parts which are germane to the discussion we've been having. The time of observation, YYMMDDHHMM, is the most interesting one and shows that the pattern of observations was as had been understood earlier, except for two sightings on the night of June 19. The satellite was next reported on October 9, and then with increasing frequency until it vanished sometime after the pass of November 5. The overall pattern is very roughly consistent with the visible passes which were deduced from the last available element set -- visibility in March-April, very briefly in mid-summer (but calculated to be mid-July rather than mid-June), then many passes in September through October. There are, however, still important unanswered questions, such as why there were no sightings from March 4 through the end of April and, of course, what happened after November 5. It would be interesting to see how well the two sightings on 19 June fit the orbit determined in October -- I'll try to run the simulation in the next day or two and report back. With respect to the generic Nth country space surveillance question, it's worth noting that all the AFP-731 observations were made at only two sites, 2420 and 2563, which presumably correspond to Edinburgh and somewhere in France. A geographically dispersed, modestly coordinated network of observers could take much better advantage of varying lighting conditions and weather. ******************************************************************************* 90-19-BsiteYYMMDDHHMMSSss RA DEC 9001902242090030206181421 02 21032045 +495205 120 4 +05+05 0 S 9001902242090030406045468 02 21032044 +494305 120 4 +12+12 0 S 9001902242090030406052137 02 21021004 +435953 120 4 +16+16 0 S 9001902256390061923000285 1 12192001 +640788 1 4 +2 9001902256390061923004713 1 12220252 +642700 2 4 9001902242090100919081478 02 21222759 +305513 120 4 +25+25 0 S 9001902242090100919092655 02 21003824 +390934 120 4 +24+24 0 S 9001902256390101418392839 1 12071514 +751200 6 4 9001902256390101418395859 1 12061406 +684122 0 4 +15+25 9001902242090101619290752 02 21121100 +750830 120 4 +58+58 0 S 9001902242090101619300969 02 21065744 +705051 120 4 +50+50 0 S 9001902242090101619311192 02 21053855 +563229 120 4 +52+52 0 S 9001902242090102119010021 02 21061109 +600118 120 4 +62+62 0 S 9001902256390102218323825 1 12104807 +564050 0 4 +6 9001902256390102218323825 1 12104807 +564050 0 4 +6 9001902256390102218331473 1 12094733 +590300 0 4 9001902256390102218334740 1 12084917 +591770 0 4 +5 9001902256390102220174253 1 12105673 +590930 1 4 +7 9001902256390102220180093 1 12102455 +595400 0 4 9001902242090102318055477 02 21093823 +723122 120 4 +52+52 0 S 9001902242090102318061308 02 21081512 +723354 120 4 +50+50 0 S 9001902242090102318074976 02 21045044 +551124 120 4 +61+61 0 S 9001902256390102518571473 1 12095082 +575940 0 4 +6 9001902256390102518574882 1 12085356 +582592 1 4 +45 9001902242090102518580011 02 21061131 +591506 120 4 +47+47 0 S 9001902256390102618303506 1 12091429 +580816 2 4 +6 9001902256390102618310951 1 12081642 +575406 0 4 +4 9001902256390102620133347 1 12125364 +541920 1 4 +45 9001902256390110117334806 1 12085358 +582532 1 4 9001902256390110117342090 1 12075718 +590996 0 4 9001902256390110117351041 1 12063334 +565544 1 4 9001902256390110117351757 1 12062230 +561716 0 4 9001902256390110117353680 1 12055542 +541692 1 4 9001902242090110218501653 02 21115833 +692611 120 4 +52+52 0 S 9001902242090110218510956 02 21075701 +793712 120 4 +49+49 0 S 9001902242090110318230018 02 21115545 +614435 120 4 +51+51 0 S 9001902242090110318240368 02 21092240 +751927 120 4 +47+47 0 S 9001902256390110517303608 1 12094914 +594392 1 4 9001902256390110517314032 1 12074668 +641308 1 4 9001902256390110517320130 1 12065724 +634728 0 4
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
