[guide-user] PHA's, MOID's, Sats etc etc

James Ellis Feb 3, 2000

Hello everybody

One for all those satellite people out there -
Tonight (3/2/00) at about 9pm AEDT (1000UT) I saw a 2/3 mag satellite going
from due west to due east.

It passed somewhere between M45 and Aldebaran and was about 35 deg
altitude from the northern horizon when at the meridian. It passed into the
earth's shadow about 10 deg above the NE horizon. Which is the correct
place given where the Sun was at the time (12 deg below the SW horizon).
It was travelling at about a degree a second, I estimated.

I hardly ever see sats moving in this orientation (maybe I don't look
enough) so I am interested to know what it might be.
I looked at the bright satellite passes in Guide but couldn't find a good
match. Any takers?

PHA's:
If asteroids or comets are to pass close to Earth then don't their
ascending and descending nodes need to be near our orbit? ie where they
pass through the ecliptic.
Now there must be a way of calculating this from a given eccentricity,
inclination, perihelion arguement of perihelion etc etc...

I'll try inewton@..............

Cheers until next time

James

"An elephant : a mouse built to government specifications"
(or vice versa)