Iridium Observations
LWojack@aol.com
Sat, 7 Aug 1999 14:48:31 EDT
On 02 August 1999 I saw a -2 flare from Iridium 49 at 22:22:09. Seemed a
little brighter than -2. It flickered, as though it were rotating at 7 times
per second. It then dimmed to about +1, where it stayed visible in my
light-polluted skies until about 22:23:10.
On 04 August 1999 I saw a -1 flare from Iridium 25. This is the first one
that I have tracked in binoculars. I tracked it for about a minute or two
until it dropped to +5 to +7 in brightness.
Am I correct in remebering that Iridiums are about 800 kilometers up?
BTW, when I was recently in New York state (DARK!), I saw two HIGH
(slow-moving) satellites, naked eye, +7 or +8, going with a half-dozen
meteors. "Free-form" observing - I was just looking at the sky, and
satellites orbited overhead.
Jonathan
tlj18@juno.com