Re: Very Bright Object Sighted
Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Mon, 08 Feb 1999 21:32:59 -0600
Troy Hedgepeth (Hedgepet@stihl.de) wrote:
> On Friday evening (2/5) I watched a very bright object (magnitude
> -2 to -4?) "set" in the south from my location (36.7653N 76.2178W,
> 6m elevation).
> ...
> When I first saw it, it was at an elevation of about 30° - 40° and
> azimuth nearly due south. As I watched the object moved slowly and
> deliberately south and remained very bright, though dimming as time
> passed until it finally disappeared below about 10° elevation at
> 18:36:40 (UTC minus 5)....
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions? I thought it might have been an
> Iridium flare, but it lasted 2 or 3 minutes...
I get Cosmos 2227 (22284/92-93A, RCS about 13 sq. met. in Mike McCants'
RCS file) as a reasonably good possibility. For comparison, there's a
somewhat similar report on the SeeSat hypermail archive, "Cosmos 2227
at zero magnitude", at:
http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/Mar-1997/0012.html
(And actually the observer, Brian Hunter, reported that it was as
bright as Sirius, which is about -1.4 magnitude. He also mentioned how
long it remained very bright.)
If Cosmos 2227's track is too far east of south, another possibility
may be Cosmos 1660 (15821/85-47A, RCS about 17.5 sq. met.). It was
more truly due south and moved more slowly, although it seems to reach
approx. 10 degrees altitude too late. Here is Quicksat output for
these two:
36.765 76.218 20. Troy Hedgepeth 2000 12.9 10 F F T T T
*** 1999 Feb 5 Fri evening *** Times are PM EST *** 1822 616
H M S Tim Al Azi C Dir Mag Dys F Hgt Shd Rng EW Phs R A Dec
22284 Cosmos 2227 92 93A 6.0 2.0 14 3.8 4.0
6 32 19 .0 37 173 196 5.5 2 7 535 458 812 1.2 86 353 -16.2
6 35 31 .0 11 166 192 7.9 2 7 534 432 1508 .7 84 445 -40.9
15821 Cosmos 1660 85 47A 18 3.5
6 33 35 .0 38 186 204 6.2 1 5 952 910 1350 .8 95 311 -14.9
6 36 49 .0 18 178 197 7.4 1 5 952 904 1932 .6 93 345 -35.4
6 38 27 .0 11 176 193 8.4 1 5 952 901 2256 .5 93 359 -42.4
> Also, on Saturday evening (2/6) I observed either a meteorite re-entry
> or perhaps a satellite reentry. The object appeared to move from the
> zenith towards the NW and only lasted about a second, but was very
> bright). Any suggestions?
Brevity and direction of motion point to this being a meteor.
Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA