Obs Jan 09

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Saturday evening the sky cleared just in time to do observations.
Just after sunset, with Venus shining brillantly at the southwestern horizon
my wife and I observed ISS on an almost overhead pass. In the east ISS got
brighter and became mag 1, just fainter than Capella (alpha Auriga) but
a bit brighter than Aldebaran (alpha Taurus), which it passed closely.

Other obs:

84-109 B 99-01-09 17:36      LB                       S, mag 6
85- 47 B 99-01-09 18:30      LB                       S, mag 6
87- 01 B 99-01-09 18:22      LB                       S, mag 6
88- 50 B 99-01-09 17:33      LB                       almost S, mag 5, dtm
88- 64 B 99-01-09 17:08      LB                       S, mag 7
93- 20 B 99-01-09 17:48:19   LB   72.3 0.2  10  7.23  AA, mag 5->7
To be wachted closely, is probably accelerating. Was Jan 2 11.8 sec and
Jan 3 11.4 sec.

93- 30 G 99-01-09 18:13      LB                       S, mag 6
94- 83 B 99-01-09 17:12      LB                       S, mag 7
98- 26 B 99-01-09 17:23:59   LB  166.6 0.5   6 27.8   Irr, 2->inv
Iridium 77 made a nice pass. The flashes were distinct, but irregular.
I measured: 17.47 67.21(2 fl) 15.70 24.53 41.68 sec
Not at all minima inv, sometimes mag 7

At 17:16 ISS made its next pass and was now mag 4. It soon disappeared in
the earthshadow.

Sunday evening I observed ISS in a half clouded sky.

Just read the ISS-news from NASA that the ISS is slowly spinning at 1
rev/half hour.
Perhaps this is also a reason for the different brightness of ISS on
different passes,
apart from observer-satellite-sun angle ect

Greetings and clear skies
Leo Barhorst  Medemblik The Netherlands
52.77 N,  5.09 E,  2 m ASL

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