Hi all , This evening , in preparation for a low elevation ISS pass I decided to set up an experiment using a 2X Barlow lense.This would give me a FOV of about 3 arc minutes only....but very high magnification. Before the pass was due , I spotted a slow moving , quite dim object coming towards me from the south....moving roughly through my overhead ( perhaps 60 deg elevation ) to the north. ISS was due within a couple of minutes so I paid little attention until I noticed the object starting to flare. I quickly pointed the telescope and fired up the camera ..... 10fps , 1/1000 sec , with a high brightness setting....not really expecting to catch anything with such a tiny FOV. However to my surprise I caught two frames a few seconds apart. Both frames show a similar shape.See ... http://mysite.freeserve.com/satcom_transits/Unid.jpg To me , the object looked like an Iridium flare....had all the same characteristics....but checking HA and Calsky nothing shows within 5 minutes of the sighting. This is far too small to be an aircraft.....I estimate at 600km the size is about 15 metres long....although its nearly 1am here and my math isnt tooo good :O) Can anyone throw any light on this please ? Many thanks. John http://www.satcom.freeserve.co.uk/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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