this evening I went outside to observe UARS which nearly "clipped" arcturus at 03:22:40 UTC http://www.heavens-above.com/PassDetails.asp?Size=600&SatID=21701&lat=38.727&lng=-90.383&alt=173&loc=Saint+Ann&TZ=CST&Date=38519.1410931447 , at the moment it was near izar in boötes (epsilon boötis) I determined it to be roughly equal in brightness to that star (2.34), perhaps even a tad brighter. then I watched envisat, http://www.heavens-above.com/PassDetails.asp?Size=600&SatID=27386&lat=38.727&lng=-90.383&alt=173&loc=Saint+Ann&TZ=CST&Date=38519.1456976489 which is one of my favorite objects to observe due to its size and distance (roughly that of a school bus and approximately 784 km at the zenith, respectively.) I watched it fly nearly through the zenith (82 degrees elevation) and then barely wide to the left of scoring a "field goal" between kochab and pherkad at 03:30:56 UTC. I was surprised that I was able to maintain sight of it until it neared polaris (I lost sight of it due to its dimness/ light pollution at approximately 03:31:30 UTC, just near an object starry night pro shows as HIP51502.) no matter how long I continue with this hobby, it still strikes me as amazing that I can see a school bus-sized object from a distance of more than 1000 km with my unaided eye. UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT #1: between these two planned observations, a bright flaring object caught my attention in cygnus just near albireo (beta1 cygni). this flare was at least -4. the object appeared almost stationary but had slight motion, straight downward, toward the eastern horizon. the time of this flare was 03:25:55 UTC, plus or minus 5 seconds. what the heck was it? starry night pro shows iridium 15 in the area but at least 25 degrees from the object I spotted, and on the wrong trajectory; the object I saw was within 5 degrees or so of albireo and definately below vega. UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT #2: as I was fumbling with my watch and looking back to ID the point of the sky where this object was fading, I caught sight of another object, moving left to right, parallel to the horizon, also unlisted in heavens-above's "brighter than magnitude 4.5" list. it passed within 1 degree or so of both 41 cygni and gienah (epsilon cygni) and I estimated its magnitude at 4.0. the time of the nearest proximity to gienah was 03:27:47 UTC, plus or minus 5 seconds. also, I witnessed a beautiful ISS pass over mars (mars was behind a solid line of clouds and then was revealed as they moved eastward during the pass.) the visible pass took place between 09:04:33 UTC on 14 Jun 2005 and ended for me when the station dipped into the aforementioned line of cloudcover at around 09:06 UTC. I watched the station emerge from the shadow in sagittarius. clear skies (y un saludo al zaragozano!) Steve Szyman Saint Ann, MO USA 38.7270N, 90.3830W El. 171 m ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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