Unexpected one-power observation
Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Tue, 27 Jan 1998 03:32:03 -0600
Monday evening (early Jan. 27 UTC) I was looking for bright ones from
outside where I work and at approximately 1:28:00-20 saw an UNID about
mag. +3 moving eastward through Auriga, passing south of Capella. A
pretty good candidate -- except for predicted magnitude! -- appears to
be (very slightly modified Quicksat output, distances in miles):
30.286N 97.739W 168m. CBA, UT, Austin, Texas 2000 8.0 45 F F T T T
*** 1998 Jan 26 Mon evening *** Times are PM CST *** 1847 640
H M S Tim Al Azi C Dir Mag Dys F Hgt Shd Rng EW Phs R A Dec
1642 Transtage 4 Db 65 82D 4.0 5.5
7 28 2 .0 60 55 148 5.2 1 6 427 135 484 1.8 45 537 43.0
7 28 22 .0 52 63 155 5.4 1 6 427 97 525 1.6 35 623 39.6
Presumably, a very favorable orientation of the object, as well as,
perhaps, the very good phase angle, range of less than 800 km, and a
very good night (in spite of poor location) -- combined to allow it to
be seen at one-power?
The two brightest ones that I saw were TRMM (25063, 97-74A) and Magion
5 Rk (24294, 96-50D). The latter was again quite bright, perhaps at
least +1.5 (or maybe even +1?); its phase was very good, and its range
was less than 600 km.
Ed Cannon
ecannon@mail.utexas.edu
Austin, Texas, USA