As requested of new subscribers, here's my introduction... My name is Al Rubin. I live in Joshua Tree, California, USA (lat 34.238551, long -116.272407). I am only a casual observer of satellites, but have been doing so for many years. Several years ago, I casually followed a satellite with binoculars as far as I could see it and was surprised how easy it was to tell that the satellite was an object at great height because it faded away at such a high altitude (unlike a plane which can be followed right to the horizon). Since then, I have been observing satellites more frequently. The following sighting on Monday, May 14, 2001 at approximately 9:30 PDT, has prompted me to join SeeSat-L. On that night, I watched a satellite traveling north to south through binoculars (16 x 42). At approximately 45 degrees above the southern horizon, I saw a dim flash and the one object very clearly and suddenly became two objects. Both objects sharply diverted from the original trajectory, one traveling toward the southeast, the other to the southwest (both at opposite yet equal angles to the original trajectory). I was able to see both objects in my field of view for about 2 seconds before their individual trajectories diverged to the point they could no longer be seen in the same field of view. I followed the southwest object for several minutes more before it became too dim to see. My apologies for not recording any more detailed information about the sighting. I was quite startled and was not able to clearly recall details such as, "Were the two objects of equal brightness?" Any suggestions as to what I saw?? Thanks, Al Rubin ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Mon May 21 2001 - 00:30:38 PDT