Hi All, Superbird A (#20040) has now returned to eastern U.S. skies, with flashes starting tonite (March 27 local, March 28 UT) at the southern tip of Florida at around 2:46 UT and working their way up the Atlantic seaboard to Newfoundland at 3:01 UT. Atlanta's flashes should be centered at 2:50 UT tonite, Washington D.C. at 2:52:30, New York City at 2:54, and Boston at 2:55. Flashes should be visible as far inland as the line from central Alabama to lower Michigan. Cleveland's peak will be at 2:53 (though the elevation is only about 8 degrees). Flash location is low in the east around RA 14h 53m, Dec -3.6 (for D.C.) Other locations will vary slightly in declination depending on latitude (e.g. Miami flash location is RA 14h 53m, Dec -1.7). Nearest bright star is mu Virginis (mag 3.87) which is a couple degrees to the southwest (i.e. to the right) of the flash location. Beta Librae (m 2.61) is about 8 degrees directly below the flash location. If you miss it tonite, don't sweat it. It will be visible each night for at least the next month, and the elevation will be steadily improving due to the satellite's slow westward drift. Current rotation period is 22.84 seconds, with flashes on the half-period visible during the middle of the ~6-minute flash window. Best, Rob ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Tue Mar 27 2001 - 17:21:10 PST