HST
jay.respler@genie.com
Tue, 28 Nov 95 05:39:00 UTC 0000
This is a response that I got on GEnie, to a question from Mike about flares
from HST:
Category 2, Topic 16
Message 303 Sun Nov 26, 1995
R.REEVES10 at 10:44 EST
Jay,
I was not really watching the Hubble per se when I saw that happen.
I was up at my observatory several years ago, I do not even remember the
exact date. I knew Hubble was making a high overhead pass that night
and I was rummaging around inside getting things ready for the night's
photo run. The lights were all off and I was aligning the cross-hairs
on the guide scope. Part of this involves setting the intensity of
illumination on the cross-hairs. I looked down to the shelf on the
pier of the telescope to reach the rheostat and I saw the carpet and
a part of the wall get brighter. My first thought was that this looks
like it does when Venus shines inside the dome and lights up the
wall, but I knew Venus was not the cause of this. I looked up and saw
Hubble was up like I expected it to be that night and it was VERY bright.
It then faded back to normal and it continued its pass across the sky.
For it to have illuminated the wall like that, HST had to have reached at
least -4 mag for a second or so. I don't know the exact phase angle, but the
satellite was at least 50 to 60 degrees above the horizon when it happened
and it was good and dark outside, no twilight left that would be throwing
a glow on the wall.
Robert
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(Bart, How would I send something via ftp for seesat-l archive?)
Jay.Respler@Genie.com
Freehold, New Jersey