Iridium 44 flashing

• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
• Next message: Mir16609@aol.com: "STS-95 Elset"
• Previous message: Eberst: "OCT27-28.OBS"

Hi All!

Ian Porter wrote:

"Observed mag -2 flashes from iridium 44 at UTC 20:24 29 OCT
I was observing with a number of senior students who were most
impressed!  Period about 15 sec with occasional flashes to
mag 2 to 3 between major flashes."

Ian observes from Victoria, Australia, and I think he meant
20:24 local time (which is UTC+10).  I do show a pass of
Iridium 44 for his location at 10:24 UT on the 29th.  But
more importantly, his is the first report of flashing from
Iridium 44 (which has been showing up in Mike McCants' file
with a ? in its name column).  At least so far, whenever an
Iridium satellite has been observed to be flashing (indicating
spinning or tumbling), it has not recovered.  If Iridium 44
continues this trend, it will be the 9th failure.  (Iridium 14
was the most recent failure a couple weeks ago).

Those with opportunities to see sunlit passes of Iridium 44
should try to confirm Ian's sighting.  At the present time
its passes are visible from Australia, New Zealand, South
Africa, Alaska and northern Scandinavia and Russia.  --Rob

• Next message: Mir16609@aol.com: "STS-95 Elset"
• Previous message: Eberst: "OCT27-28.OBS"