In the land of the Midnight Sun (soon; 800 km N of me) I was too tired last week to stay up long enough to see comet 2001Q4 (NEAT). I tried once, but it took me ten minutes to find any star between Jupiter and Venus (using 7*30), five more to identify them, and two more to find beta Cancrii, but no comet. Yesterday I was out from local midnight and saw it easily in 7*50 and 20*200. Using 7*50 at maximum out-of-focus I estimated its magnitude at +5.0 (though the comparable gam Cnc was slightly more compact) 23:08-23:14 UTC I had the track of ETS-6 above easily located beta Sct and lambda Aql, but saw no flash. Observed USA 161 in the scope: 26934 01 044A 5919 F 20040515215843290 17 25 0033384+630762 99 S 26934 01 044A 5919 F 20040515215844460 17 25 0035189+625936 55 S 26934 01 044A 5919 F 20040515215914490 17 25 0132381+603469 28 S 26934 01 044A 5919 F 20040515215958220 17 25 0229174+553205 97 S What these numbers mean: http://www.satobs.org/position/IODformat.html At 22:20:20 +- 20 s in lower Cephei I saw a single bright flash - could it be Nimbus 5 72097A ? Other satellites for which I took some approximate times and pos, and later identified: 22:20 70113B, 22:30 Iridium 43, 22:32 Cosmos 1220 (very bright), 22:36 82059A, 22:56 83003B?, 23:03 83044A. Another UNID at 22:30, between CVn and eps UMa, thought to be Ir 43, but times and pos mixed-up. And one very faint, moving above gam Vir 22:57:50 in DIR=045 degrees? /Björn -- COSPAR 5919, MALMA, 59.2576 N, 18.6172 E, 23 m -- -- COSPAR 5918, HAMMARBY, 59.2985 N, 18.1045 E, 44 m -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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