Well, as some in Texas might say, "Yee haw!" I lucked into seeing bright one-power flashes from two of my favorites. Orion 3 (25727, 99-024A) -- for the first part of the pass, I didn't see anything, so then I tried unsuccessfully to see Iridium 24 (25105, 97-082B). Then I did see the predicted Iridium 22 flare. Then I looked again for Orion 3, and sure enough it flashed about -1, and there were five more before it went into eclipse, the last couple somewhat fainter than the previous four. It has accelerated since I last saw it. Observed from Univ. of Texas at Austin campus. 99- 24 A 01-02-06 00:56:41.5 EC 83.2 0.3 4 20.8 mag -1->inv ETS 6 (Kiku 6, 23230, 94-056A). This was after I got home, and I almost didn't look for it due to being at least 20 minutes late. But it was a beautiful evening, calm and not too cold, and I recalled that I had seen it flash before in Orion, and this pass was near-perigee to the south of Orion, so I went over to the museum grounds. Not long after I got situated and looked briefly with binoculars -- flash! It was about +1. I saw six one-power flashes and then with binoculars could see secondaries as well. After a couple of minutes I tried to see Telstar 401 for two or three minutes and then -- flash! ETS 6 again! I saw four one-power flashes this time; they were one-half cycle off from the first set. It also has accelerated since I last saw it. Observed from around 30.3068N, 97.7267W, 150m (grounds of Elizabet Ney Museum). 94- 56 A 01-02-06 03:36:41.0 EC 98.0 0.3 10 9.80 mag +1->inv We had a very nice pass of ISS last night. It might have gotten as bright as Jupiter. Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Tue Feb 06 2001 - 02:04:02 PST