NOSS 2-3 Rk, Iridium 11, and others
Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Tue, 14 Jul 1998 07:15:04 -0400
Some observations -- Tuesday morning, 14 July 1998 UTC;
approx. 30.3086N, 97.7279W, 150m
NOSS 2-3 Rk (23907, 96-29B) went a few degrees east of Altair (alpha
Aquila) at about 11:02:32 UTC and a few degrees west of Deneb (alpha
Cygnus) at about 11:03:20; slowly tumbling to mag. +1.
Lacrosse 2 (21147, 91-17A), after passing through Cassiopeia, touched
another bright star at about 10:41:41. Unfortunately, so far I
haven't been able to identify that star.
Iridium 11 (24842, 97-30G), very good pass, many one-power flashes,
first one observed at about 10:49:01, last bright one at about
10:50:48, brightest one (-4 or brighter?) at about 10:49:26. Two
other bright-flash times were 10:49:14 and 10:50:30. (These times are
pretty rough because there were so many flashes; it's spinning pretty
rapidly.)
Iridium 9 flare 2 mag. fainter than predicted by Iridflar.exe (due to
moonlight, high humidity and low alt. above horizon?)
Iridium 54 flare about as predicted (possibly fainter)
Iridium 10, flare as predicted
...
Last night's brightest SPOT 3 (22823, 93-61A) flash was probably -3
or -4, but quite a bit fainter than Sunday night's. Unfortunately I
was stuck without my digital clock, and all I can say was that it was
when SPOT 3 was about 31-35 degrees above the horizon on its way to the
north.
Last night's NOAA 7 was very good, with a -2 (?) flash very soon after
it emerged from the shadow; that flash was among a group of at least 8
one-power flashes, and there were at least two other, lesser groups of
flashes, the last one in Ursa Major.
Ed Cannon -- ecannon@mail.utexas.edu -- Austin, Texas, USA