Hi all -
I observed the pass of the soon-to-leave-earth-orbit CONTOUR spacecraft last
night, using a hand-drive equatorially mounted 12.5-inch reflector. For one
hour, 04:46 to 05:46 UT August 10, I watched CONTOUR slide gracefully among the
stars, and occasionally I took a magnitude estimate. My observations are
listed below on the Highfly output for the pass (using a Quicksat standard
magnitude of 4.0). It appears that CONTOUR faded more rapidly than predicted
by Highfly, meaning there was less of a phase angle effect to counter the
distance effect. I probably could have tracked it for another hour, but my
neck was getting sore. Perhaps these observations will help predictions of
future Earth flybys of CONTOUR.
39.877 105.391 8950. Coal Creek Canyon 2000 17.0 20
2002 Aug 10 UT - al times UT
27457 CONTOUR 02 34A M 4.0 ELDY 0 M2 0
Hrs Min Alt Azi Mag R A Dec Range Obs Mag
4 45 38 254 9.0 15 33.0 12.9 4053 9.2
4 50 53 247 9.0 16 37.3 19.3 4638
4 55 63 239 9.1 17 27.0 22.9 5392
5 0 69 229 9.4 18 4.8 24.8 6221
5 5 73 216 9.6 18 34.0 25.8 7079
5 10 76 203 9.8 18 57.0 26.2 7941
5 15 76 191 10.0 19 15.5 26.4 8794 10.5
5 25 77 174 10.3 19 43.7 26.3 10456
5 35 76 165 10.6 20 4.1 25.9 12047 12.0
5 46 12.5
5 55 74 159 11.1 20 32.3 25.0 15020
Cheers, Rich Keen, Coal Creek Canyon, Colorado, USA (39.877N, 105.391W, elevation 2728m)
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Aug 10 2002 - 22:23:14 EDT