Perfect Night in Germany!

From: Russ Bessom (russbessom@desurf.com)
Date: Tue Mar 05 2002 - 05:33:00 EST

  • Next message: Daniel Deak: "STS-109 observation from up north !"

    Hello All,
    
    Simply a perfect night here in Germany for observing!  Finally!  On a scale
    of 1-10, Mar 4th 02 ranks as a 10!  I started the night off during the last
    minutes of the setting sun with my Baader sun filters on at 20x  Incredible!
    I have never done this when the sun was so low, and was amazed at the way
    the sun's edges seemed to break down through the atmosphere, and how I could
    see solar flares boiling off the top as it continued to sink below the
    horizon, Incredible!  Of course, this was all an optical allusion, but if
    you want to simulate solar prominences through some foil filters try this!
    After the sun sunk below the horizon, I immediately swung the scope up back
    along the sun's path about 10d and picked up Venus as a small bright ball.
    Five minutes later, (18:30 UTC) I picked up Jupiter and it's four moons,
    then Saturn, and on to the Plaides, Awesome!  Then it was time to set up for
    my first sat.  DEBUT (ORIZURU) (#20479U) was about 5 seconds early.  It
    surprised me as it went sailing through my small 1.8d field of view (fov) at
    18:14:33 (UTC).  Steady at about Mag 6.  Then at 18:44 (UTC), picked up
    MEGSAT (#25722U) on time but couldn't get an accurate Mag.  Maybe about 5.
    Picked up Tips at 19:11 (UTC) going through Cepheus!  Both Ralf and Norton
    exchanging greetings across their 4000 meter phone line!  What a sight!  At
    about 40x you can see the glowing 4km tether measuring about 15 arc minutes
    flying vertical with Ralf and Norton exchanging mag 5-6 flashes with each
    other.  Picked up USA 144 at 19:39 (UTC) slowly moving through a 1.8d fov
    steady at about a mag 7.  Temperature is starting to drop, about 3d (C).  I
    saw  SAPPHIRE (#26932U) at 20:07 (UTC) at about mag 6 and steady.  At 20:35
    (UTC) acquired  PICOSAT 9 (#26930U) steady and very faint at about mag 9.
    Read Ed Cannons thread on Centaur 2        8.6  3.0  0.0  5.0 d   12
    (#00694U) and decided to try for it.  Sorry Ed, I picked this one up way to
    late, only got about 30 seconds of timing on this one before it slipped
    behind the neighbors roof-top.  No flashes noted.  Very steady at about mag
    4.  I could have picked it up about a minute earlier but was afraid it would
    be to low on the horizon to pick up.  So I waited for it to be about 10d in
    altitude.  When I picked it up, it was bright and steady!  Shoot!  Maybe
    next time.  BTW, this sat was in the exact same spot at 19:24 (UTC) as it
    was when I saw it at 21:12 (UTC) How can this be?  I didn't see the first
    pass at 19:24 (UTC) because it was behind my neighbors house, but my
    prediction program showed it going through the exact same starfield as the
    later pass when I picked it up.  Temperature down to 1d (C).  I tried to
    make Raduga 33 at 12:35 (UTC) but the wife had other plans ; )..   What an
    Interesting orbit this satellite has!  What is it?  Some type of Molniya
    orbit or what?  Look at the Perigee and the Apogee, Wow!  Well that's all
    for now from Germany!  It is now the morning of the 5th and clouds have
    already moved in...Drats!  Oh well, back in the machine shop to try to hook
    up a web cam to my big binos!  Till the next clear night...keep looking up!
    
    Russ Bessom - russbessom@desurf.com
    Zweibruecken Germany
    Lat 49.14.0 N / Long 7.19.0 E - 325m
    
    
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
    Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe'
    in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org
    http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Mar 05 2002 - 05:37:41 EST