If I may add something to Ed's original question... I believe he meant to ask if anyone had seen any 'bright' strobing on a near zenith pass. I have seen naked eye flashes on the same type of pass that Ed saw: 'low in the west, poor phase, descending'. I saw flashes all the way across the sky, but I saw naked eye flashes at the beginning and end of the pass. Randy > -----Original Message----- > From: finn%main.jetnet.ab.ca%cds.plasma.mpe-garching.mpg.de@Mail.Riem.Com [SMTP:finn%main.jetnet.ab.ca%cds.plasma.mpe-garching.mpg.de@Mail.Riem.Com] > Sent: Monday, April 20, 1998 8:46 AM > To: SeeSat-L%cds.plasma.mpe-garching.mpg.de@Mail.Riem.Com > Subject: Re: Iridium 27 again > > At 02:55 AM 20/04/98 -0500, Ed wrote: > > >It appears that it may flash fairly reliably on low passes to the > >west (i.e., poor phase angle) when it's on the descending node. Has > >anyone seen if it flashes on near-zenith passes and/or low in the > >east (i.e., good phase angle) on either descending or ascending node? > >(Actually, I was fairly sure that I unexpectedly saw one flash from > >it near the zenith several months ago but didn't have another chance > >or see any other messages about it for a while.) > > > > At the beginning of the new year i saw Iridium 27 'strobe' on near-zenith > passes and on successive nights i was able to observe it. It's rate of > flashes were varied, some were at -3 to -4 while others were barely visible. > Some times i could only pick it up as it was directly above while other > times i would see it coming up from the south, although only once it got to > about 40 dgrees. As it decended to the north i could track it until it got > to about 20 degrees. I had hoped to see it again as it came into view once > again recently but the skies up here didn't get dark enough to see it. > > Jari