[meteorite-list] Fwd: 5:15 UT slow, bright Mediterranean bolide

[Sterling K. Webb]

Hi, List,

    You can watch it in realtime position at:
http://www.n2yo.com/?s=31602

    So, why was it leaving a luminous trail:
"a bright object that left a long trail"? Hmmm.
Answering my own question, it is listed as 
one of "satellites with periodically varying 
brightness." It must have "flashed."


Sterling K. Webb
----------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <mexicodoug at aim.com>
To: <Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 7:15 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Fwd: 5:15 UT slow, bright Mediterranean bolide


Hi List, Rob, and everyone who held their breath on this one,

Please read the other half of the story - from none other than our 
favorite satellite and comet bagger, Rob Matson !!!

Best wishes and better luck next time:(
Doug

PS God help us if Rob ever defects ... thanks again and I trust it was 
good work!
===========================
Hi Doug,

Please feel free to forward this to the Meteorite list for me...

I just did a quick check on this, suspecting it might be a satellite 
re-entry.  ... it was travelling east-to-west!", let me add that it was 
actually ~because~ it was travelling east to west AND passing over 
Israel that a lightbulb went off in my head.  Israeli satellites are 
always launched in retrograde orbits, and I thought it would be an 
amusing case of karma if this turned out to be one of their own.

Well, in short, it was:

Shavit R/B, USSPACECOM #31602, launched some time in 2007.

I just plotted its trajectory as seen from Jerusalem, and bingo.

--Rob

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