Ir38+39 videotaped

Bjoern Gimle (b_gimle@algonet.se)
Fri, 13 Feb 1998 20:13:35 +0100

This morning I videotaped, and watched, the following flares :

39 98- 2-13  6:48:00.0 057 30 1378 D Lit  -5.1 F  1.41  1.4
39 98- 2-13  6:48:06.2 059 30 1372 D Lit  -5.1 F  0.14 -6.7
39 98- 2-13  6:48:14.0 062 30 1366 D Lit  -5.1 F  1.81  2.1

38 98- 2-13  6:49:40.0 057 30 1354 D Lit  -4.9 F  1.38  1.3
38 98- 2-13  6:49:45.9 059 30 1348 D Lit  -4.9 F  0.11 -6.8
38 98- 2-13  6:49:53.5 062 31 1342 D Lit  -4.9 F  1.79  2.0

Times are UTC+1. Subjectively, the second flare was fainter.

I aimed my camcorder tripod using a compass and my carpenter's angle
to the light blue morning twilight, 60 degrees from the Sun at -5 deg.
I zoomed to about 10 degrees FOV initially, a little less at the end
of the first one, and during the second.

I timed them on playback to 15+14 seconds, so the mag.limit at this
zoom and backlight appears to be about 2.0. With dark skies, the limit
is around 4-5, partly because a longer focal length can be used, so
the effective lens area is larger.

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