ETS 6 long flash event; USA 129 long flare; 1x NOSSes

From: Ed Cannon (edcannonsat@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Apr 14 2006 - 06:38:43 EDT

  • Next message: Ed Cannon: "ETS 6 -- PPAS report"

    Earlier today I found ETS 6 (94-056A, 23230, a.k.a. Kiku 6) 
    flashing about +5.5 at about 2:03:30 UTC in western Virgo.  It
    slowly brightened.  Flashes visible without binoculars (with it
    not all that far away from Moon) lasted from about 2:12 to 2:20
    UTC (roughly RA 12:20 to 13:00, Dec +2.5 -- northernmost apex). 
    The brightest ones seemed to me to be about +1.5 -- definitely
    brighter than Polaris, although with the moonlight I'm not 
    completely certain.  Its range at the time was 9,000 miles 
    (14,400 km) plus or minus.  I kept watching it as an entire 
    page of Quicksat predictions went unobserved (by me).  The last 
    flash I recorded was about +5.5 at about 2:24:47.5, when I let 
    it go after over 20 minutes.  This was from the BCRC site.  The 
    next opportunity will be Sunday evening (April 16 local time, 
    April 17 UTC).  
    
    My plan to observe 90007 flashes earlier tonight turned out to 
    be delayed until too late due to the second pass of USA 129 
    (96-072A, 24680), which produced an exceptionally long, bright
    flare (+2.5 at a range of over 1,100 miles/1,760 km) quite low
    in the north-northwest.  Wednesday evening, from the Ney Museum
    site, 90007's flash episode (that I was able to see) was from 
    4:27:24 to 4:35:07.
    
    Oh, earlier tonight the leader of NOSS 2-2 (91-076E, 21809) was 
    visible without binoculars for much of the pass, while the two 
    followers (91-076C, 21799 and 91-76D, 21808) were a lot fainter.  
    Then during the pass four minutes later of the NOSS 3-3 pair 
    (05-004A, 28537 and 05-004C, 28541), both of them flared to +1 
    magnitude and were visible without binoculars for much of the 
    pass.  Both of these sets of satellites were northbound, from
    southwest to north.
    
    Ed Cannon - Austin, Texas, USA
    
    
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