In a message dated 8/9/2002 23:54:15, rjohn@axarosenberg.com writes: >I watched Contour from 4:44 UT until about 5:15. At first, it was fairly >easy in a 4 inch refractor (5600 km), but eventually I just couldn't see >it (14,000+ km). It was quite interesting to watch the change in speed >and brightness, one could sense the >tremendous climb it was making. Hi everyone I also got a nice view, using a 4.7" refractor, despite some thin cirrus clouds observing from San Francisco. I used the JPL Horizons systems for the pass prediction, since I wasn't sure how well normal satellite tracking software would handle such an eccentric orbit. I aquired Contour at 04:47UT (~6000km range), on time and exactly on the predicted track. It was steady at around mag +8.5 but faded as it got further away. The angular velocity of the spacecraft decreased noticible over the following few minutes. I managed to follow it until 05:07UT (range ~12,000km) by which time it had faded to perhaps mag+11. The brightness varied, notic ibly once it got fainter with a couple of brief brightenings. Also at one point it seemed like there was some low amplitude rapid pulses, but that could have been an artifact of seeing or the high cloud. This has to be the most eccentric orbit satellite that I have observed so far, we were very lucky to have good pass geometry to observe it at close range. I hope some of the earth flybys this spacecraft will make during its mission will be as easy to observe.... Best wishes and clear skies, Jason Hatton San Francisco, CA (37.77N, 122.42W) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Aug 10 2002 - 03:50:55 EDT