Lacrosse 5 with Varying Brightness

From: Gerhard HOLTKAMP (grd.holtkamp@t-online.de)
Date: Mon Mar 26 2007 - 16:46:33 EDT

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    Just met our old friend Lacrosse 5 (2005-016A ) again. I picked it up at an 
    elevation of just 8 deg when it was passing next to Venus (the one thing I 
    can easily find in a light polluted city sky!) at 20:03:50 UTC (26-MAR-07). I 
    then followed it with my 3 inch scope. 
    
    Lacrosse 5 started out very dim (due to the low elevation) but at 20:04:34 
    quickly jumped by at least 2 mag (within two seconds or so). It fell down by 
    about 1 mag at 20:04:55 and then dropped (within a second or two) by another 
    two mag (I guess) very quickly at 20:05:53. Here goes the disappearance trick 
    again! It stayed dim for the next two minutes at least (after which I lost 
    sight of Lacrosse 5 due to some wall getting in the way).
    
    The magnitude of the dim part was probably around mag 6 or so (my best 
    estimate through my limited field of view and the light polluted city sky).
    
    Gerhard HOLTKAMP
    Darmstadt, Germany
    49.8822 N, 8.6558 E
    
    
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