re: Iridium double-flare

From: Walter Nissen (wnissen@freenet.tlh.fl.us)
Date: Mon Mar 12 2001 - 06:51:31 PST

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    rodsladen@crosswinds.net ("Rod Sladen") writes:
    
    > 1. Double flares may actually be fairly common, but are missed ...
    > Only if checking timings or positions carefully is is evident that the
    > flare is not symmetric about the predicted flare maximum time.
    
    Thanks much for posting your OBS.
    
    Your comments about glints are distinctly parallel to those made here
    by other careful observers.
    
    Since the predicted time of a glint may not be reliable, I try to
    record, in addition to the more obvious events, the instants when the
    brightness is magnitude 5, allowing an observation-based determination
    of symmetry or asymmetry.
    
    See also the discussion in, and referred to in,
    http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/Jul-1998/0367.html
    
    > 2.  Extra flares prior to the predicted flare may easily be missed.
    
    > 3.  Extra flares after the predicted flare may also be missed.
    
    Thus my suggestion of extended observations of passes in
    http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/Sep-1998/0013.html
    
    Cheers.
    
    Walter Nissen                   wnissen@tfn.net
    -81.8637, 41.3735, 256m elevation
    
    ---
    
    Did you know?:
    Some satellites are seen continuously when sufficiently high above the
    horizon, but others may flash to visibility only briefly at rare
    intervals.  [Is this unfair?]
    
    
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