Last evening (Tuesday, EDT), we looked for all four Koronas-F objects (using 7x50 and 10x50 binoculars in a fairly light-polluted sky) but, like others on this list, only saw two of them (naked eye at that) at 2001 Aug 01/01:44.0 UTC: 26874 (01-032B) Koronas-F R/B at approx magnitude 3.2 (e.g. like zeta Cyg) followed, in about 3 seconds, by 26873 (01-032A) Koronas-F itself slightly brighter at, say, 2.8 (brighter than zeta Cyg's 3.21 but fainter than epsilon Cyg's 2.48) A few minutes, ISS made a lovely (but flare-less) near-zenith pass. Later, 2001 Aug 01/02:26.2 UTC, we saw an unexpected -1 to 0 magnitude flare (brighter than Vega) from Meteor 3-3 (20305 = 89-086A); this was at an altitude of 63 degrees, azimuth 065 degrees, (astronomical) phase 64 degrees. We'd seen this object on three different passes in September 1998 at apparent magnitudes of 5-1/2 to 7 with no hint of flaring. I guess almost ANY non-spherical satellite can, on occasion, flare! Clear and dark skies! Ed and Darlene Light Lakewood, NJ, USA N 40.1075, W 074.2312, +24 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 01 2001 - 05:33:41 PDT