Recent Obs.
Mir16609@aol.com
Mon, 22 Feb 1999 22:55:30 EST
After 3 fairly clear evenings there are some obs of note:
20 February
For most of this week there will be flares in the triangle formed by Sirius,
Procyon and Betelgeuse. On this evening Iridium 53 made a nice -5 mag flare.
What was interesting to see was that it flared through some hazy clouds and
seemed to illuminate a circle about .25 degrees around the flare center.
Iridium 14 made a series of bright flashes that lasted about 2 minutes
beginning at 01:06:30 UTC (21 February). The 1x flashes were double flashes
spaced about .5 seconds apart. The double flashes occurred at about 10 second
intervals. The flash spacing times are best estimates.
21 February
Inside the above referenced triangle, Iridium 54 and Iridium 86 flared about
2.5 minutes apart. Iridium 54 seemed to stay at the predicted +1 mag for
about 20 seconds. Iridium 86, although listed as a "?", flared to the
predicted -3 magnitude at 01:21:07 UTC (22 February). Cosmos 972 Rk (10541)
crossed the path of Iridium 86 at 01:21:21 added a nice finishing touch.
Cheers.
Don Gardner
Homepage: http://hometown.aol.com/mir16609
39.1796 N, 76.8419 W, 34m ASL