From: pthomson@iastate.edu (I Forgot)
Subject: Re: cryptocraft photography, Re: Aurora 
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Distribution: sci,na
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 06:38:45 GMT

In <1992Dec19.005254.1@stsci.edu> hathaway@stsci.edu writes:

>In article <1992Dec17.040911.15524@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>, dnadams@nyx.cs.du.edu (Dean Adams) writes:
>> 
>> anthony@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Anthony J Stieber) writes:
>>>dnadams@nyx.cs.du.edu (Dean Adams) writes:
>>  >>Were there any photos of the F-117A prior to the official release? 
>>  >>I don't beleive so, even though it flew for almost a decade.
>>  >Yes, at least one in AW&ST, July 10, 1989, p22.  
>> 
>> Yes... but the "official release" that I was speaking of took place on 
>> November 10, 1988.  That is when the AF first acknowledged the F-117As
>> existence and released a single photo (which AW&ST of course printed :).  
>> 
>>  >This is sometime after the first flights of the craft in 1981, but of 
>>  >course all the early flights were done exclusivly at night.  
>> 
>> The Have Blues flew in 1977, and the first F-117A flew on June 18, 1981.
>> In all that time it seems nobody really managed to catch a good view of 
>> them on film (at least nobody without a Senior Trend clearance :)
>> 
>>  >I'm sure there will be pictures of whatever this/these craft are.
>> I'll certainly be waiting...  It may be a while though.
>> 
>>  >Someone with camera and a telescope lens will catch it.
>> The sky is awfully BIG...
>> 

>Yes, indeed, it includes everything up there... 

>However, there are a lot of people observing.  I wish the following 
>observation could have been recorded on film or tape, but it was a 
>visual observation by two people of something we have not yet nailed 
>down.  If the following were a satellite, it either had to have been 
>high up (notice it was seen after midnight EDT) or been low enough 
>to pick up and reflect sufficient ground illumination.  All attempts 
>to match it with known satellites have found nothing. Perhaps it 
>was a sighting of this whatever???  I'd sure like to ID it. 
>Serious comments most welcome. 

>  description of observation: 

>    Observation:  Unknown 
>    Observers:    I. Cooper, W. H. Hathaway 
>    Date:         night of 8-9 JUN 1991 
>    Time:         ~3-5 minutes both before and after 12:40:30 am EDT 
>                  - this time checked via phone while object was 
>                  being followed 
>    Site:         Severn MD,  Long: 76 Dg 38 Mn W, Lat: +39 Dg 11 Mn 
>    With:         10" f/6 Cave Astrola 
>    Eyepiece:     28mm Meade Orthoscopic 
>    R.A./Dec:     picked up while sweeping for NGC6829 in Cygnus, 
>                  roughly 19-20 Hr, + 50 Degrees,
>                  followed continuously to vicinity of northern Ophiuchus 
>                  roughly 16-17 Hr, + 10 Degrees, 
>                  until obscured by leaves of large maple tree 
>    Magnitude:    roughly 8th magnitude 
>    Appearance:   ! extended object !, shaped somewhat like a horseshoe, but 
>                  sides squeezed together, or like a sharply closed 
>                  boomerang.  Overall size, roughly 1 arcminute. 
>                  (eye-ball comparison with disk of Jupiter) 
>                  Each 'arm' maybe 20 arcsec in width, 40 arcsec in length, 
>                  and the black space between the arms about 10 arcsec in width.
>                  It looked much like the picture of HST on page 32 in the 
>                  July 1991 Sky and Telescope, but more "U" or "V" shaped 
>                  rather than the skewed "H" shape.  Note that was 1 1/4 
>                  arcSECONDS across from a distance of 1000 kilometers. 
>                  The surface texture was reminescent of a planetary nebula, 
>                  though with less surface brightness than the Ring Nebula. 
>                  Slight color - creamy, light brown to tannish - not 
>                  distinguishable from solar reflection. 
>                  Starlight clearly seen in the 'notch' between the arms. 
>                  Starlight possibly visible when passing behind each arm. 
>                  The direction of motion was _not_ along the axis of the 
>                  arms, more like 45 degrees from their intersection. 
>                  No point or point-like lights, no navigation lights,  
>                  colored nor white.  Sketch made immediately afterward. 
>                  
>  Identification: It had all the familiar steady motion of an 
>                  Earth satellite, but _not_ in a common Direct orbit from 
>                  West to East.  Motion actually more like from NE by N to 
>                  SW by S.  If a satellite, it was in a near-polar orbit, but 
>                  Retrograde.  

>Wm. Hathaway 



Just a couple observations.  Having done some studies of the Soviet space
programs, I found that most of their lower orbit satellites that need polar
type orbits, are in retrograde orbits.  This is due to problems with launch
sites being located inland and having populated areas downrange.  I heard
a couple stories of lower stages dropping into populated areas during the
early 70's.  Along with these polar retrograde orbits, their early warning
satellites use highly eliptic (sp??) orbits to maximize there time over
targets.  These orbits result in, well, sort of 'wave type' looking ground
tracks with segments that do go ne to sw.  The polar orbits sats I'm looked
at most were the weather sats and I didn't find much on there intelligence
gathering sats.  I would guess, from looking at other systems, these would
also have retrograde, very low polar orbits. (weather sats are up at 950 to
1200km were as 'spy sats' are probally down around 200-250km.)

Well, who knows, maybe it was that UFO they showed on "Sightings" tonight
that was filmed by the shuttle.


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