Cosmos 1043 -- Great pass!
Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Wed, 17 Sep 1997 22:25:07 -0400
Cosmos 1043 (78-094A, #11055) made a great pass over here
tonight! Even though it was only around 50% illuminated for
the entire pass, it was very bright throughout, reaching a
maximum magnitude that I estimate as being possibly +1. Also,
it was still at least mag. +2.5 when it went within perhaps
0.25 deg. of Polaris at about 1:33:05 UT Thursday. The pass
culminated at altitude 79, azimuth 280.
I was able to see in twilight a pass of GPS 2-19 Rk (93-017C,
#22583) that must have reached at least mag. +1.5.
And, in spite of the mediocre-to-poor location on the Univ. of
Texas at Austin campus (30.29N, 97.74W, 160m), I also observed
Lacrosse 2 (91-017A, #21147), UHF 2 Rk (93-056B, #22788 --
flashes to +2 at least), Meteor 1-28 Rk (77-057B, #10114), and
HST (90-037B, #20580).
Those were all one-power observations. I also tried to "get
Iridiated" (i.e., observe Iridium flashes), but they all
(Irids. 12, 13, and 14) were too northerly and/or too low
tonight. At least, I didn't see any flashes at all in the NE.
Ed Cannon
ecannon@mail.utexas.edu
Austin, Texas, USA