Rod Sladen has a nice discussion of Iridium 9 and its replacement by Iridium 84: http://www.rod.sladen.org.uk/iridium9and84.htm Between Bram Dorreman and me, and interesting possible observational idea has arisen, of trying to co-observe or at least simultaneously observe some flaring geosats between here and there. It's probably too late this season, so this is something to think about for the September equinox. The flaring would be best to the west in the morning from Europe and at the same time to our east in the evening here. According to my possibly highly subject to error calculations, it looks like longitude 46 west is about halfway. Around 45 west on March 6 (the approximate peak date for 40 degrees north), according to Ted's Geolong program, were these satellites: 23764 1996-002A PAS 3R 43.0 W 0.01 W 25585 1998-075A PAS 6B 43.1 W 0.01 W 24891 1997-040A PAS 6 43.2 W 0.01 W 26608 2000-072A PAS 1R 45.1 W 0.02 W I've definitely seen easily in binoculars at least two of the three PAS at 43 west, just in the last week. From longitude 75 west (central east coast of USA), I think halfway is closer to 35 west, and at 30 west there's a cluster of four Hispasats. Of course, with good-sized telescopes on good nights, the co-observing could be done any time of year, given simultaneous good weather and early-rising European observers. Something to consider... 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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