Kevin Flanagan wrote: > I have for years been a long time lurker. Welcome to SeeSat-L, Kevin. > While I am not do not currently > have the time to contribute I saw something tonight I feel is worth > reporting. I checked heavens-above before emailing, and based on the > following observation, I saw nothing that matches. > > My location (*42.4403°N, 71.7435°W)* > Time a few minutes before 10:40 pm. EST on April 13th, 2012 > Through scatter clouds I noticed two satellites traveling south to north > passing between mars and Regulus (one trailing the other by I would > estimate half the distance between mars and Regulus) heading into the ladle > of the big dipper between stars Phecda and Merak. I lost track of the pair > just before they reached the big dipper. They seemed (which I am sure is an > eye trick) to be wobbling as they traveled north, maybe tumbling and > varying in brightness enough to appear as a wobble? The lead was brighter > than the trailing satellite, I would guess (I am not good at this so use > wide error bars) ~mag. 2. > > The reason I am posting this is, I could not find what appeared to be a > bright set of satellites for my location and time that matches what I saw > and it seems very strange that you have a pair of satellites flying in such > close formation. > > I apologize for the quality and lack of an accurate time for the > observation, especially if this is a well known pair. It is indeed well-known: NOSS 3-5, consisting of 11014A / 37386 and 11014B / 37391. You did not find them on H-A, because they are normally fainter than the site's magnitude cut-off for predictions. All three generations of NOSS are well-known to flare brightly on occasion, as you observed tonight. You happened to catch them just as they exited eclipse, in LEO: http://www.heavens-above.com/PassDetails.asp?lat=42.4403&lng=-71.7435&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=EST&satid=37386&date=4101 3.1107719213 You are right about the apparent wobbling being an optical illusion. Ted Molczan _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
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