An Asteroid and a glint from a far off Satellite

Hi,

While observing asteroid 21 Laetitia last night, I noticed a faint glint of light in the high power field. After a few moments it occured again, but now in a very slightly different position. I waited again and it occured again.
The date & time was 17 Mar 2009 at 20:48 UT. I was using my 25cm reflector with a 7mm eyepiece (about 180x). There was thin cloud which only just showed 12.7 mag Laetitia.

I was wondering what is was. A very high flying plane? a satellite? - it would have to be far away.

Then I remembered reading about glints of light from geosats.

I checked in Guide 8 and downloaded upto date orbital elements.

Exactly in the location and time was H-2A (Norad 28237) from Japan. After a bit of research I discovered this is half a payload shroud in an orbit of 417km x 35042 km at an inclination of 29 degrees.

It was probably near apogee at the time as it was very slow moving. The original mission was probably a comsat, could anybody confirm that?

John

Nice find John. Did you at any stage think you spotted another asteroid?

Seanie.

Hi Seanie,

I never thought it was another asteroid. The flashes were just too brief and sharp. The range of the satellite (i.e. really space junk) then was some 33,500 km.

By the way, for 21 Leatitia read 21 Lutetia.

John