Standard magnitude for GEO331
Rainer Kracht (R.Kracht@t-online.de)
Mon, 19 Feb 96 23:49 +0100
Standard magnitude for GEO331
-----------------------------
From 27 magnitude estimates (1995 Apr 27 to 1996 Jan 21) I have derived
a standard magnitude of 3.26 (1000 km, 90 deg) for GEO331.
mag = (3.26 +/- 0.09) + (0.0200 +/- 0.0022)*(phase-90) + 5*LOG10(range/1000km)
Jay Respler's observation from 1996 Feb 19 (UTC) has a range of
approx. 38600 km, phase angle 19 deg. The computed magnitude is:
3.26 + 0.0200*(19-90) + 5*LOG10(38600/1000)
= 3.26 - 1.42 + 7.93
= 9.77
My own observations at small phase angles are 0.1 to 0.2 magnitudes
brighter than computed with the above formula (and my individual magnitude
estimates are uncertain to about 0.5 mag due to a lack of comparison
stars with known brightnesses), so I would expect a magnitude of about
9.5 +/- 0.5 for Jay's observation (9.2).
Jay Respler wrote:
>More of these should be easy to find by astrophotographers.
Astrophotographers of GEO331 should photograph at low phase angles.
Rainer Kracht 1996 Feb 01
0412188960-0001@t-online.de
R.Kracht@t-online.de
+9.6626E, +53.7695N, 9m