Last night was the first night of clear skies here in Athens GA since the lunar eclipse. A few hours before dawn I crudely observed Gorizont 14. Not as bright as Gorizont 23 a few weeks ago, but in the 12.5" dob I was able to see it as limiting magnitude 13 or 14 intermittently between the magnitude 6 or so flashes. I did not detect any qualitative difference in intensity or frequency of flashes in the hour or so before it supposedly entered shadow at 07:38 UT. I notice using the latest satellite elements that for observers in the US longitudes Gorizonts 17 and 24 will be passing within a degree of each other in the half-hour or so starting at 10:23 UT 11 Feb 2000. This appears to be a biannual event. I was able to find prior observations for flashing from both of these: Dan Karcher Jan 98 and Robert Matson Apr 99. Could be an interesting visual spectacle - has anyone observed these lately? It looks like the earlier close approach of the two at 22:40 UT 10 Feb will not be visible from Western Europe. Regards, Wayne Hughes http://morgan.botany.uga.edu/wayne/astronomy.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Mon Jan 31 2000 - 07:04:23 PST