Tuesday evening, despite patchy clouds, we "endeavoured" ( pun intended ) to see Progress M1-4 and ISS and saw the same pass thet Don Gardner reported (except that we saw them from 18:32 - 18:36 EST which is 23:32 - 23:36 UTC 12 Dec 2000; I presume that Don meant to say 23:31 UTC, etc., instead of 22:31). We first glimpsed the Progress (26615 = 00-073A) at 23:31.5 UTC to the lower right of Altair in binoculars but then lost it, either because it was slowly varying or the aforementioned clouds; at 23:32.3 it appeared about 5th magnitude as it passed below Albireo on its way to shadow entry. At 23:35.3 we spotted the ISS (25544 = 98-067A) some 8 degrees to the lower-right of Altair (at just 19 degrees elevation) brighter than Vega (i.e. at an apparent magnitude of perhaps -0.5), and by 23:36.2 when it passed below ALbireo, it had "dimmed" to approximately zero magnitude. Although we didn't see it as bright as Don did (of course, he was slightly closer!), it still was brighter than we'd ever seen it so low in the SW. Throughout the pass, its coppery color was veryt noticeable. Incidentally, although I can see that Albireo is a double star with my handheld 10x50 binoculars, I couldn't clearly discern any shape to the ISS; maybe on a higher pass. Clear and dark skies! Ed and Darlene Light Lakewood, NJ, USA N 40.1075, W 074.2312, Hgt +24 m (80 ft) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Dec 13 2000 - 04:08:08 PST