Re: What was it?

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In a message dated 9/24/99 9:34:45 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
jpdietrich@flash1.flashmail.com writes:

> Anyway, it was approximately altitude 30 and azimuth was approximately 145 -
>  150.  Again, these are estimates.  The brightest part of the flare was 
about
>  10 - 15 seconds and it lasted for probably over 30 seconds.  The time was
>  20:07 EST.  Does anybody know what this satellite was?  Is it possible that
>  it was lit by the full moon?  

It may have been a DMSP satellite (DEFENSE METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITE PROGRAM). 
 They will flare unpredictably from time to time. This one is a reasonable 
match to your obs (I am assuming that you meant EDT [UTC -4] and not EST):

DMSP B5D1-3      6.4  1.7  0.0  6.5 v            800 x 786
1 10820U 78042A   99265.52514516  .00000416  00000-0  17926-3 0  2286
2 10820  98.5791 100.5423 0009703 126.0784 234.1309 14.29621073113567

DMSPs are considered "sensitive" by DOD so it's best to go to the "gov" and 
"mil" URLs for info:
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/dmsp/dmsp.html
and
http://www.spacecom.af.mil/usspace/dmsp.htm

Cheers
Don Gardner  39.1796 N, 76.8419 W, 34m ASL
Homepage: http://hometown.aol.com/mir16609/
Baikonur  -  mplayer.com / hearme.com

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