Superbird A and Insat 2D

From: Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Date: Wed Oct 17 2001 - 11:59:55 EDT

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    In spite of it being only 14 degrees above the east horizon and in 
    the Austin city glow, last night Superbird A (89-041A, 20040) was 
    easy to see with binoculars.  My times were from about 3:14:15 to 
    3:16:54, begun after phase shift.  (I had been trying to time 
    something else before that.)  Thanks to Björn and Tony for writing 
    to say when to look for it.
    
    Insat 2D (24820) was brighter than nearby iota Ceti when first 
    observed but was down to +6.5 maxima by end of observation:
    
    97- 27 B 01-10-17 04:08:59   EC 1727.2 0.5  24 71.97  +3.0->inv
    
    Its flashes were slow.  It moves several degrees farther east 
    from night to night, and I don't know if it's been observed -- 
    with maxima this bright at least -- on two successive nights on 
    any of its apparitions.
    
    A few flaring geosats still were visible last night, but they 
    seemed fainter than a week ago and also seemed to be appearing 
    around RA 21:30-35 (2000), which is farther east than a few days 
    ago and almost an hour in RA farther east than in late September.
    
    MOS 1-A (87-018A, 17527) is doing easy one-power flashes each 
    night right now for our location:  30.315N, 97.866W, 280m.
    
    Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA
    
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