Below are the objects I've seen *without* magnification the last two nights from outside the building where I work, on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin (30.286N, 97.739W, 150m), which is in the middle of the city. (In the winter, given my work schedule, on weeknights I can't get to a better observing site in time to see LEOs.) Obviously this is not an awfully bright city center, and these were moonless evenings with a very clear sky, so the limiting magnitude may be about +4.0. But I was on a pedestrian bridge above a street, with streetlights and walkway lights, some passing vehicle lights, the brightly illuminated UT Austin tower, white building walls, etc., nearby. So perhaps they may serve for newcomers to satellite observing as a fair example of what can be seen just for fun from an urban setting on a very good evening. Given similar conditions, one can show objects like these to family, friends, neighbors, or even passers-by. On each of these evenings, I possibly missed one or two that I might have seen if I had not been paying close attention to another one. Add a pair of binoculars or observe without magnification from a dark site on a moonless night, and these numbers can be doubled (tripled?) easily. (Maybe I should get a pair of binoculars to use on campus....) Monday evening I also saw two meteors (one about +2, one about +3.5) while observing these satellites. The observations are in chronological order. Where I say "with such-and-such", I mean that they were in the sky at the same time, not necessarily that I could see them both at once. 2002 Jan 08 UTC (Monday PM Jan 7 CST) 1. 00694 63-047A Atlas Centaur 2 -- very slow, bright tumbler 2. 25727 99-024A Orion 3 -- bright multi-flash maxima 3. 12069 80-087B FleetSatCom 4 Rk -- nice tumbler 4. 25510 98-061C SedSat/DS-1 Rk 5. 21701 91-063B UARS (with UNID close by, probably 04119) 6. 04119 69-084A Meteor 1-2 (probably; was UNID close to UARS) 7. 08520 75-124B Meteor 1-23 Rk 8. 22566 93-016B Cosmos 2237 Rk 9. 25063 97-074A TRMM 10. 13007 81-119B Intelsat 503 Rk -- nice tumbler 11. 25469 98-051C Iridium 80 -- solar panel and MMA flares 2002 Jan 09 UTC (Tuesday PM Jan 8 CST) 1. 25727 99-024A Orion 3 -- bright multi-flash maxima 2. 22566 93-016B Cosmos 2237 Rk (with 00694) 3. 00694 63-047A Atlas Centaur 2 (with 22566 and 13272) 4. 13272 82-059B Cosmos 1378 Rk (with 00694) 5. 21701 91-063B UARS 6. 23088 94-023B Cosmos 2278 Rk (with 11511) 7. 11511 79-078B Cosmos 1125 Rk (with 23088) 8. 20390 89-100B Cosmos 2053 Rk 9. 25338 98-030A NOAA 15 -- flare a few seconds 10. 25468 98-051B Iridium 81 -- solar panel and MMA flares 11. 18586 87-098B Cosmos 1898 Rk 12. 06155 72-065B OAO 3 Rk -- mag. +1 maximum (unusually bright) 13. 12069 80-087B FleetSatCom 4 Rk -- nice tumbler 14. 24871 97-034C Iridium 920 -- a *bunch* of flashes, low in west I hope in a while -- with binoculars, at least -- to see Intelsat 512 (16101, 85-087A), a brightly flashing drifting geosynch like Superbird A, and possibly another one or two. 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://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 08 2002 - 22:54:58 EST