THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 157 1988 May 19  19.09UT.
Telecom Gold 72:MAG60138
Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16, Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke,
Hants, RG22 4PP, England. Telephone:(0256)471074.Int:+44256471074
Telex:265871(MONREF G) Quote"72:MAG60138 ATT G.HURST"in FIRST line.
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ABBA 1
Rob McNaught comments:
The orbit given represents the positions poorly.
Much better elements are
T   = 1987 Sept 15.503
Peri= 257.841
Node= 128.782
Incl=  29.252
a   =   1.14914
e   =   0.87974
P   =   1.23 years
Motion and mag (based on H=15, G=0.25) are

1988 Feb 16  46.7"/hr in PA 14 mag 18.7
1988 Mar 19  71.8          328     18.4
1988 Apr 29  75.0          278     18.3

This is an Apollo orbit and doesn't represent any known comet or
minor planet. From the crude positions, I assume that these are
naked-eye  observations, in which case mag < 6.  This would then
give H < 3 for the  outbursts. It is not possible that such an
object would have gone unnoticed.
There is a (slight) possibility that the orbit is one of the few
artificial satellites in heliocentric orbit.  This I'll check later
today.
However, there is the same problem in getting such bright flashes.
The claim that this is a flare star is patently ridiculous.

My conclusions are
1) This is a hoax.
2) This is another case of the Aries flasher.  Amateurs who have
more computational power than sense.
or
3) It is an artificial satellite in heliocentric orbit.

Martin Mobberley reports that photographs on May 15 at the