We just saw the aptly-named SuperBird A (20040 = 89-041A) merrily flashing during its leisurely pass across Virgo. Unfortunately, I don't have the official reporting format handy, but we timed 39 cycles from 2000 April 01 03:05:00 to 03:12:27 UTC (times +/- 1s) making the period 447 +/- 2s / 39 = 11.46 +/- 0.05 s. The brightest flashes easily exceeded eta Vir (V=3.89) in brightness and even resembled gamma Vir (2.74), while fainter ones only reached 5th mag. It's always a thrill to see something almost 23500 miles (37800 km) away with our naked eyes! Thanks, SeeSat, for the heads up! Clear and dark skies! Ed and Darlene Light Lakewood, NJ, USA 40.1072 N, 074.2317 W, 69 ft (21 m) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Mar 31 2000 - 20:34:33 PST