Lacrosse 2 mag. -2 flare

Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Thu, 10 Apr 1997 03:43:07 -0500

Wednesday evening, given an unexpected respite from cloud cover, from UT 
Austin campus near my office (~30.29N, 97.74W) I was looking for a very 
good (76 deg. culmination) pass of Lacrosse 2 (91-17A, 21147).  Just a 
few seconds after it appeared (~~1:52:47 UT Thursday 10 April) at azimuth 
346 and altitude 31, it brightened to approximately magnitude -2 and 
stayed there for about 1.0 to 2.0 seconds.  Then it dropped back to 
predicted mags.  The total length of the flare was 3 or 4 seconds.  After 
that it continued to be a great pass of about 5 minutes, much of it 
brighter than magnitude 2.0.  (I can't confirm the exact times because I 
had only my analog watch.)

About 10 minutes earlier, Cosmos 2326 (95-71A, 23748) made a very good
pass, 79 deg. culmination, as well.

And in the west was Hale-Bopp just below Algol (beta Pers) and north of 
the 36-hour-old Moon.

[Aside to Philip Chien (KC4YER@amsat.org), regarding:
[
[>> ("Naked-eye" is a misnomer, since I wear glasses, but I'm don't know 
[>> of another term....)
[>
[>How about 'visually challeneged'
[>
[>;-)
[
[Yes, but I was looking for a term that would express the idea of 
[observing without magnification and would be equally applicable to 
[naked-eye and glasses-wearing observers.  How about "one-power...?"]

Ed Cannon
ecannon@mail.utexas.edu
Austin, Texas, USA
30.308N, 97.728W