Last night we caught Intelsat 512 (16101, 85-087A) before its phase shift, which was at about 4:50:40 to 4:51:00. For about 4.5 cycles during the phase shift, I could not see it with my 10x50s. Otherwise, I watched it from 4:45:51.40 until 4:58:02.75, plus two more after that using Mike's telescope. I thought that its brightest maxima were before phase shift and probably were about +4.0 if not brighter. They're quick like Superbird, and the sky conditions weren't great, so I couldn't see any without binoculars. In the telescope, some half-period tumbles are visible. I envy Kevin's dark sky. I think it's a pretty rare night when I can see +8 at the BCRC site with my 10x50s (handheld). I had a nice coincidence, that northbound Envisat crossed the same binoculars field of view as southbound USA 160 A and C! USA 136 Centaur Rk (97-068B, 25035) is already about to be lost in evening twilight to us here, so it's up to someone east of here to see it later this week. Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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