I just came in from satellite observing. At 0016:57, I saw my first Iridium flare in at least a month. It was at magnitude 0, and was right on time! It faded after ten or fifteen seconds, but then stayed at about mag. +2 for about fifteen or twenty seconds (never saw such long naked-eye visibility ever before), at about 15 degrees altitude with dozens of streetlamps shining in my eyes. At 0023, I was looking for Lacrosse 3. Instead, at 45 degrees altitude, I saw a mag. +6 to +7 satellite going from WSW to N. Can someone tell me if this was Lacrosse 3, or something else? Maybe even eight magnitude - I needed averted vision just to see it at all! I then saw the Cosmos 1184 Rocket (00:28). I then made my first sighting of the OCS at 0035. But then at the end of the pass, I saw another satellite, unidentifable for me. It was at 20 to 25 degrees altitude, 3 degrees lower and to the left of OCS (estimate about a 40 degrees angle). Same speed, magnitude +3 to +4 for both of them. Perhaps this unidentified satellite is part of the OCS payload? I then failed to see SeaSat 1(no pun intended : - ). All observations made with 7x35 binoculars. 39.706 N, 75.683 W. ---------------------------- Jonathan T. Wojack tlj18@juno.com "If you come from a little bit of slime out of a pool, then what's so great about life?" --- Arizona Representative Karen Johnson, on the implications of biological evolution ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Fri Mar 31 2000 - 18:10:17 PST