Lunar Iridium Flare #3

From: Ron Lee (ronlee@pcisys.net)
Date: Sat Jun 10 2000 - 10:13:55 PDT

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    Several days ago Rob Matson alerted me to another good Iridium flare
    using moonlight as the source.  Initial conditions made it look
    similar to the first one I saw over a year ago.  It was high in the
    southern sky with the moon almost setting.  It was also at the sleep
    robbing time of 2:10 AM MDT local (810 UT).
    
    This time I elected to stay up.  After setting up the telescope,
    digital setting circles, I went to a easy to find star nearby and star
    hopped to the expected location.
    
    I was ready 10 minutes early and my eyes were well dark adapted.  I
    was concerned that it might not be close to the expected magnitude of
    7 since the moon  was just past first quarter.
    
    The actual time of the flare was 2:10:17.6 local so I made a final
    adjustment of the scope location at 2:10:00 and on time a relatively
    bright Iridium flare (using moonlight) came passing through.
    
    I am going to estimate that it was 8th magnitude...possibly brighter.
    It might have been visible in binoculars.  The other interesting thing
    is that this was the first that I saw during the entire passage
    through the field of view.  I also imagined that the brightness varied
    a bit but cannot state that it was a true effect.
    
    The flare occurred about a minute after entering Earth shadow.
    
    The satellite was iridium 42 (#25077).  I am at 104.5614 W, 38.9478 N,
    2073 meters.
    
    Ron Lee
    
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