[vsnet-chat 1796] Re: object identification request

["Fraser Farrell" <fraserf@dove.net.au>]

G'day all,

A reminder that even the online satellite identification services are
not complete...

A group at our local observatory witnessed a similar "flare" near zenith
a couple of months ago, a few hours after local sunset.  This event
lasted about 30 seconds, peaked at mag -5(!), and showed _almost_ no
motion relative to the stars.

We had a list of Iridium flare predictions on hand and were able to rule 
them out immediately (and Iridiums show obvious motion too).
Geostationary satellites would have been well north of our zenith.  So
when I got home I queried a couple of the online satellite lists, but
without success.

Then I contacted one of our members who has been satellite tracking
since the late 1950's.  His enquiries - which took him several days -
revealed that we had seen a US spy satellite.  Apparently this
particular satellite has a perigee over Baghdad (or wherever) and (to
maintain Sun-synchronicity) has a relatively high apogee over the
southern hemisphere.

He reckons that we probably saw the Sun reflected from its synthetic
aperture radar backplane - a big sheet of aluminium.  The solar panels
are rumoured to be oriented so that a reflection to ground observers
cannot occur.

The US military officially denies the existence of this particular
satellite, which is why it isn't listed on the identifier websites.

Incidentally, this isn't the first time we've seen "nonexistent"
satellites from Australia - many of them have sunlit apogees ;-)


cheers,
Fraser Farrell

http://vsnet.dove.net.au/~fraserf/

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