Iridium 11 flashes; Cosmos 673 Rk
Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Fri, 19 Feb 1999 03:18:22 -0600
Observed two very bright flashes from Iridium 11 (24842, 97-30G).
mag. +0 to -1 at 1999-02-19 02:04:10 +/- 1 sec.
mag. -1 to -2 at 1999-02-19 02:04:19 +/- 1 sec.
Location was maybe almost a kilometer or less north of 30.286N,
97.739W, about 150 m.
Also had a near-zenith pass of Iridium 14, another flashing one,
but I didn't see anything from it at one-power.
Had a predicted -5 flare from Iridium 54, but I'm sure that it
was at least a full magnitude brighter (perhaps due to me being
almost one km. north of my prediction location?); also it passed
only a few degrees from Sirius -- a very nice sight.
Sunday night and Thursday night (local time) there were very
bright passes of Cosmos 673 Rk (07418, 74-66B), which Alan has
predicted in decay list #70 as decaying on May 4. Thursday
night's pass at 1999-02-19 00:55:02 UTC, with culmination at
alt. 81, azi. 260, and phase angle 90 deg., was easy to see even
with the solar elevation being only -8 degrees. I was able to
watch it for more than a minute. The Quicksat predicted mag.
was +1.3 (intrinsic mag. +3.0), but it may have been brighter.
The Moon, Venus, and Jupiter weren't too bad Thursday evening,
either!
Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA