I have seen the HST flare on a number of occasions (but never a double flare) and I think one prime candidate would be the flat back surface (where the prime mirror is located). This offers the exciting possiblity of figuring out where the HST was looking at when the flare occurred. Assuming your -4 flare at 21:35:30 was caused this way the back surface would have been pointing at RA 5h34m, Decl 18°44' and the HST observations done at the time would then be in the opposite direction of the sky. Does anybody know whether there is a website to find out where the HST was pointing at during that time to test this hypothesis? Gerhard HOLTKAMP Darmstadt, Germany Gerhard, I think you are right about the flat "bottom" of the spacecraft being the source of the HST flares. Several years ago after some discussion about Hubble flares here on this list, an engineer from Marshal Space Flight Center called me at work and "chewed the fat" with me about these flares. I forget what his name was, be unofficially decided the flat bottom was the source. The solar panels are just not flat enough to cause the bright flares. Back before my observatory was blasted into oblivion by a thunderstorm, I actually saw a shadow on the floor of the observatory from a bright Hubble flare shining through the open dome slot. This was about 10 years ago. It caught me by surprise. Robert Reeves +29.484 98.440 reeves10@swbell.net San Antonio, Texas www.robertreeves.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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