Iridiums 11, 21, 20(18), 15, et al.
Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Tue, 16 Jun 1998 03:43:48 -0500
One-power observations Tuesday evening (early 16 June UTC), from
the Univ. of Texas at Austin campus, 30.286N, 97.739W, 152m (poor
location). (And I stranded myself without a digital timepiece,
so the times are rough, to say the least.)
Iridium 11 -- one very bright flash a bit after culmination at
about 2:23:40 (?). (There may have been more to see, but while
I was trying to watch it, a couple of people asked me what I was
looking at....)
Iridium 21 -- visible for quite a while beginning after its
2:40:44 culmination; reached at least zero magnitude with a sort
of double-max flare-like appearance pretty close to 2:42:00. It
began to dim, so I wrote down the time. Then when I looked up
again after 3-4 seconds, it was bright again. Then it remained
visible for quite a few more seconds. This seemed more like a
flare than a tumble. To the best of my recollection, this was
the first time that I've seen Iridium 21 at one-power.
Iridium 20 (24871, a.k.a. Ir 18) -- eight bright one-per-second
flashes that ended about 2:54:45 (very near its culmination).
Iridium 15 -- flared as predicted by Iridflar (+1).
Other fun things:
Meteor 1-4 Rk (04394, 70-37B) chased down Cosmos 2297 Rk (23405,
94-77B); their closest approach was about 4 or 5 degrees
separation at 2:39:49.
USA 81 (21949, 97-30G) -- again visible sparkling at one-power.
Cosmos 673 Rk (07418, 74-66B) -- bright, maybe at least +1.5.
Nice pass of Mir in twilight (solar elev. -6 deg.).
18 objects seen at one-power -- really nice night!
Ed Cannon -- ecannon@mail.utexas.edu -- Austin, Texas, USA