Friday 2 July 2010

The brightness behaviour of USA 32 on 26 June

On 26 June I captured the 22-year-old ELINT USA 32 (88-078A). It displayed a regular brightness variation while passing through the zenith:

click image to enlarge


Below is the resulting brightness profile, and a diagram showing the delta T (in seconds) between brightness peaks. The period between the major peaks is regular and near 1.20 seconds. This is similar to what I determined for this satellite in January 2009 (see my post here). There is a hint of 2 lesser peaks present between each main peak.

click diagrams to enlarge


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