Re: What to look for?

Mir16609@aol.com
Mon, 22 Feb 1999 08:49:03 EST

In a message dated 2/22/99 09:18:38 AM EDT, gaillead@bigpond.com writes:

> As a new viewer to this arena, can anyone recommend which Sats I should be
>  looking for.  I have viewed the ISS, MIR and a few Iridium Flares so far
>  with naked eye and binoculars and have been recommended to look out for the
>  HST and Seasat.  What else should I be going for?

Some of my personal favorites are the tumbling Iridiums.   Although they will
not flare, they will, on nearly every pass, give a series of 1x flashes like a
strobe light.  Unlike the operational Iriduims, they are fairly easy to track
with binoculars and under hazy conditions you can just wait at 1x for the
flashing to begin.

Iridium 71 tum   3.0  0.0  0.0  6.0 d            779 x 775
1 25320U 98026B   99052.25350619  .00000835  00000-0  29015-3 0  1205
2 25320  86.4025 171.3205 0002434  18.6657 341.4630 14.34370637 42313
Iridium 24 tum   3.0  0.0  0.0  6.0 d            787 x 768
1 25105U 97082B   99051.37601034  .00000815  00000-0  28339-3 0  1744
2 25105  86.3981 171.5816 0013061 353.2485   6.8549 14.34263512 61224
Iridium 27 tum   3.0  0.0  0.0  6.0 d            549 x 543
1 24947U 97051D   99051.44054779  .00011926  00000-0  79896-3 0  2705
2 24947  86.6351 194.2520 0004013 142.8751 217.2771 15.06782987 78865
Iridium 20 tum   3.0  0.0  0.0  6.0 d            785 x 766
1 24871U 97034C   99052.21531658  .00000913  00000-0  31573-3 0  2494
2 24871  86.3992 297.6438 0013024 343.0872  16.9892 14.34703157 84931
Iridium 11 tum   3.0  0.0  0.0  6.0 d            772 x 751
1 24842U 97030G   99050.54434547  .00000768  00000-0  24254-3 0  2756
2 24842  86.4456 267.3543 0014303 286.4719  73.4911 14.39009851 87913
Iridium 14 tum   3.0  0.0  0.0  6.0 d            780 x 774
1 24836U 97030A   99051.11279077  .00000414  00000-0  14040-3 0  2422
2 24836  86.3940 266.4856 0003927  68.0887 292.0737 14.34332767 87779

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