Anomalous magnitude for a Delta 1?

From: Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Date: Wed Jun 26 2002 - 02:09:28 PDT

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    Very sorry to hear about Bruno Tilgner!
    
    I saw a bright southbound object in the southeast.  The 
    sky was not very clear, but this object was easy to see 
    without binoculars, at least +2 magnitude.  It crossed 
    over nu Serpentis Cauda at about 3:05:30.8 (June 26 UTC) 
    and went a degree or so below and left of eta Ophiuchi 
    about 20.25 seconds later.  Observing site was 30.307N, 
    97.727W, 150m.  Findsat gave 06306, 72-097B, Nimbus 5 
    Rk (a Delta 1, according to Sat. Sit. Report; RCS about 
    6.4) as a near-perfect match, but the Quicksat predicted 
    magnitude was about +6.5.  The range was 2100 to 2200 
    km.  Seems anomalously bright, almost like OAO Centaurs 
    sometimes do.
    
    When NOAA M/17 (27453, 02-032A) exited shadow Monday 
    evening (June 25 UTC), it was flaring to about +2 
    magnitude.  I somehow managed to have two culmination 
    predictions 47 seconds apart, both with zero days elset 
    age indicated by Quicksat.  I clicked my stopwatch at 
    about 4:02:57 and noted "flare in Hercules".  FWIW, a 
    "NOAA KLM USER'S GUIDE" is at:  
    
    http://www2.ncdc.noaa.gov/docs/klm/ 
    
    NOSS 2-2 passes continue to be bright.
    
    Superbird A is getting pretty far west, flashing very 
    near 4:00 UTC here now.
    
    Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA
    
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