Obs 10 March

Mir16609@aol.com
Wed, 10 Mar 1999 21:34:18 EST

WIRE has been making virtually the same pass at the same time fort the last
few evenings.  It has definitely slowed in tumble rate. I observed 18 sets of
in "ff F" cycles in 60 seconds beginning at 23:50:00 UTC.

99- 11 A 99-03-10 23:51:00.0 JDG 060.0 0.5  54  0.90   ff->F ssm, mag
+4.0->6.5
99- 11 A 99-03-10 23:51:00.0 JDG 060.0 0.5  18  3.333 ff->F ssm, mag +4.0->6.5

Iridium 79 gave a nice 1x flash centered at 23:54:35 UTC

The ISS was about a +2.0 mag as it passed over gamma-UMi (15az, 26el), then
brightened to about +1.5 to +1.0 as it passed through the tail of the Big
Dipper (40az, 27el).

Iridium 20 did not provide a single 1x flash from 00:38:10 to 00:43:00

Topex/Poseidon (22076) displayed a very nice flare tonight.  It was visible at
1x at 01:04:35 UTC and gradually increased in brightness until it was about a
-1 mag, brighter than nearby Capella at 21:05:03 UTC (285az, 57el).   By
01:05:35 UTC it had dimmed back to +6.0 mag.

Cheers.
Don Gardner
Homepage: http://hometown.aol.com/mir16609
39.1796 N,  76.8419 W, 34m ASL