2 Iridiums flaring at same time

From: Steve Newcomb (snewcomb@mail2.gcnet.net)
Date: Tue Mar 05 2002 - 23:23:24 EST

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    On Tuesday nite (all times EST  -5UTC) saw Iridium 91 at 19.45.45 at Phecda.
    At 19.47.00 saw Iridium Sim 1 #24925 at Polaris. At 19.54.22 saw Iridium 90
    at Megrez. At 19.55.00 saw the Iridium rocket #27377 at Menkalinan. At
    20.00.25 saw Iridium 31  4 degrees from Procyon and 45 seconds later see
    Iridium 94 approx same place and heading to the double flare predicted by
    Iridflare. They were approx 3 degrees apart both at 1 to 0 magnitude at
    013az 26el at 20.04.35. There separation at flare time was less than when
    spotted near Procyon. Element Manager says that #31 is at an altitude of 482
    miles and #94 is only at 418 mile.  It was clear and calm with 30 F temp. I
    was impressed, flares seemed to last 10 seconds at least, this was the first
    time I have ever seen 2 flare at same time.
    Then saw Iridium 95 at 20.11.00 near Pollux and Iridum 96 at 20.20.20 near
    Menkalinan. I used 10 X 50 binocs for all sightings except for flares naked
    eye. Iridium 95 was preceded by Iridium 32 by 30 seconds and Iridium 96 was
    preceded by Iridium 33 by 20 seconds. I was not looking for numbers 32 and
    33 but were sighted as unknowns then id with IDSat. My only regret was I
    missed seeing Iridium 94 at 20.02.00 under Castor, I got messed up in my
    times after watching 2 sats on their way to a double flare. I  had planned
    to see all the new Iridiums in 1 night,  plus a repeat for me of Sim1 and
    #31 for a double flare, but I still had a really good night.
    
    Lat 39.4697  Lon -79.3393  Alt 2573 ft.
    
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