> I observed USA 129 2000-08-20 on an early pass, from site 5918. > It was flashing wildly. Despite Sun at only -6.9 deg, I followed > On 08-21, a near-zenithal pass, only a normal flare was seen. I (thought I) missed it at 30 el., so I looked in binoculars at eps Lyr, near 50 deg., when I saw the end of a long flare before it entered the FOV. It was bright (+3-4) unusually far N. On 08-23 it was mostly cloudy (as 08-22) but while some gaps appeared I saw a strange sight. At about 20:02 UTC I noticed a "star" mag. +1 or so, at appr. RA 19:35, dec.+65, which looked fuzzy. I thought it was a bright flare, shining through clouds, but it remained for 15 minutes and appeared steady. At 20:08:29 a +3 satellite passed within 3 degrees. The patch was oval, about 0.2 x 0.1 degrees, pointing N-S, near zenith. It barely increased its size when clouds passed, and not its brightness?! At 20:17, it faded to invisibility in about 30 seconds. I have seen searchlight patches on clouds, but they were larger, and moved/disappeared as clouds passed. I have also seen laser beams, but the beam has been visible, and again the end point has been mobile. I live 12 km from a civilian airfield, 25 from disused Air Force base. > -- b_gimle@algonet.se (home) http://www.algonet.se/~b_gimle -- > -- COSPAR 5919, MALMA, 59.2576 N, 18.6172 E, 23 m -- > -- COSPAR 5918, HAMMARBY, 59.2985 N, 18.1045 E, 44 m -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Aug 23 2000 - 22:10:40 PDT