Gregory May wrote: ---------- On Monday evening I observed this VERY fast-moving object. Actually, I was lucky to have caught sight of it, because it was approximately 50 seconds EARLY, according to the prediction generated by SatSpy v2.5 (3/16/98 19:49:56). ---------- I have been waiting for good passes of this rocket; I too saw it Monday, though I didn't try timing it until Tuesday evening (19:19 pass, with 1/2 degree of overhead, at mag 2.2 [SatSpy pred.s]). I used a tape recorder, Tag Heuer watch, binoculars and laid down beside a satellite weather downlink antenna on the roof of oceanography that I know the position of within 2 meters. I used the dklist.tle elset for 18-march afternoon and advanced it with SatEvo0.29 to epoch 98077.011 UT (about an hour before pass) as: Iridm 15 Delta r 5.9 2.4 0.0 5.6 d 324 x 222 km 1 24874U 97034F 98077.01087471 .00620793 12659-3 84331-3 0 92769 2 24874 82.7033 288.5154 0076326 134.2650 226.3637 16.00554248 39172 After going through the tape, I figured it to pass 8.7 +/- 2.3 seconds (95% confidence interval) EARLY. I should have taken more time points for a better regression and error determination, but the tape speed was surprizingly more variable than expected. HINT: use an external microphone in cold weather and keep the delicate recorder in a warm pocket. Anyway, it's a beautiful object I hope more people can get to see, -tyler Tyler (Joe Stats) MacKenzie Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/5918/ 44.636N 63.595W 50m ASL