>shadow entry about 22:42 EST (03:42 UTC on Jan 17) a few degrees from >Sirius. My question is at what point should we "expect" to see these >fabled bright flashes? Our local weather forecast is for cold >temperatures >and, with the moon "contaminating" the sky, it's not the kind of night >to sit outside for any length of time. > >If the earlier brightenings were so easily visible in, say, Maryland, >which >is not much south of us, logic (?) would imply that we ought to be able >to see such a show up here. > Every observer should report their date, location, and SIDERIAL positions of the flashes: If the spin axis is only slowly precessing, like our direction to the Sun, flashes will occur only a few degrees away on day 3 from that obs. They will also sweep a large part of a small, or larger, or great circle on the stellar sphere, and accurate observations from different places/passes will allow (Rob Matson et al) to determine the spin axis and extend/improve predictions. If siderial position is not given, location, date and TIMES will determine the positions. Michel Jacquesson at lat +49 saw them four degrees over epsilon Eridani, to ten degrees left/above gamma Eridani. Some others,earlier, have mentioned Rigel. I have failed twice, probabaly looking when it left Eridani. If it is clear tomorrow, I'll start looking right of eps Eri (a little lower because of my latitude) If the circles swept out by the spin are roughly parallell to the track I may see nothing, or at a completely different place. If they are perpendicular, they should be seen over most of the world, and ACCURATE flash times may help predictions. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Jan 16 2000 - 13:09:02 PST