Gerhard HOLTKAMP Darmstadt, Germany (this is my SeeSat debut) On 8-APR-2005 a total/annular eclipse is visible in the Pacific region. After finishing there the Moon's shadow will sweep geostationary satellites over the Atlantic an thus offer an indirect way to observe this eclipse from Europe (and from Africa, South America and eastern parts of North America). Best placed are the satellites between 33.9° West and 34.2° West which will experience an eclipse lasting 34 minutes in the early morning hours of 9-APR-2005 of which a few seconds (at 0:57 UT) are annular. During the first 11 minutes of the eclipse the apparent brightness of the satellites would drop by mag 1 but during the final 5 minutes before annularity the apparent brightness drops by another 3.5 mag or so which should be easy to observe. After that the brightness increases correspondingly. Satellites outside this narrow band experience a partial eclipse. INTELSAT 903 stationed at 35.25° West seems to be the one best placed and should experience a total drop in brightness by 3.5 mag at 1:01 UT. A few other satellites in the vicinity should see a drop of between 2 to 3 mag. The event coincides with a time when flares caused by the solar panels of geostationary satellites can be seen from mid-latitudes. Observers from Europe should see a flare at 2:40 UT on 9-APR-2005 of INTELSAT 903 right after shadow egress. So without moving your telescope you can observe an eclipse of the Sun, passage through the shadow of the Earth and flares - all in less than two hours! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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