Newcomer

Gail Leadbeatter (gaillead@bigpond.com)
Sun, 21 Feb 1999 13:33:44 +1100

Hi,

I am new here, my name is Warren Leadbeatter (I am using my wife's email
account at home).
I am located at a place called Kellyville NSW Australia. (Coords 33.72 S,
150.93 E 99M ASL)
Kellyville is approx 40km NW of Sydney, clear skys and well situated for
night sky viewing.

I have been watching the night skys for the past 10 or so years. Nothing
too serious, mainly sun, planets, moon and the occaisional comet, however
this year I decided to find out more about satellites after noticing a few
that would occaisionally flare up then fade out. (I have since discovered
that these are Iridiums).  I decided to get on the Internet and see what I
could find.  I have found some excellent sites that have given me a great
amount of information in very little time. 

The first place I discovered was the GSOC Satellite Predictions Page.
http://www.gsoc.dlr.de/satvis  I was totally amazed when it told me that
the ISS was going to fly over and I went outside to look and there it was
exactly where the program said it would be! The hair was standing up on the
back of my neck and there was a rush of excitement. Hey, this thing works!
I quickly raced back inside to see what else this thing could tell me.  I
discovered that the Iridium Flare predicitions are also very accurate and
was blown away a second time when I saw one during the day time.

Since then (about 3 weeks ago) I have found all sorts of amazing info,
satellite prediction programs, elsets! and web sites that have led me here.
 Hopefully I will learn more from you guys and maybe contribute a little as
well.

Regards,
Warren Leadbeatter

P.S. Last night I saw 2 Iridiums within a minute or so of each other, I
believe it was Iridium 84 first then Iridium 10 second.  There seems to be
a bit of confusion regarding the naming of these little guys. I read that
OIG lists Iridium 9 & 10 back to front and that Iridium 84 is not at
operational altitude yet so the flare predicition may not be accurate.

Nevertheless I saw 2 flares within a minute or so of each other flying
North to South about 26 deg El at 183 deg Az. at the times predicited by
IRIDFLAR v1.65 by Rob Matson. Amazing!

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Warren Leadbeatter        Email: warren@ozemail.com.au
Ph: 02-9629-5851  Mobile: 0412-230-677   ICQ#: 5986123
    *** Web: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~warrenl ***
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