Here are my identifications of the flaring geosats I saw on September 30 UTC. 1. Shadow-entry obs (seen in the general area of 00:00 RA) Most of these got to at least +5 or brighter, I believe. At least one of the TDRS satellites has been as bright as iota Ceti (+3.5). 09478, 76-101A, Marisat 2 or 3 (a, b) 13969, 83-026B, TDRS 1 19772, 89-006A, Intelsat 505 19883, 89-021B, TDRS 4 22314, 93-003B, TDRS 6 26608, 00-072A, PAS 1R 26824, 01-024A, Intelsat 901 and one of these three (c): 23764, 96002A, PAS 3R or 24891, 97040A, PAS 6 or 25585, 98075A, PAS 6B -------- a Marisats are solar-cell-covered cylinders, so it seems unlikely, but I didn't get another candidate as good according to Findsat. b Satellite Situation Report calls it Marisat 2; Encyclopedia Astronautica calls it Marisat 3. c Mike McCants has told me which of these three was brightest, and I've seen them in his telescope, but I can't find my note on it and can't remember. 2. 20:30-21:30 RA obs (seen in area 3 hours from shadow entry) These have been fainter, +6 to as faint as I can see with my 10x50 binocs. 26038, 99-071A, Galaxy 11 (probably not 25740, 99-027A, Nimiq 1, only 34 seconds away) 26624, 00-076A, Anik F1 26724, 01-012A, XM-2 26761, 00-018A, XM-1 or 24713, 97-002A, GE 2 (only 44 seconds separation) Weather hasn't been very favorable here the last two evenings. Last year I think it was mostly cloudy for about three weeks after October 5. Question: There are thin clouds in front of the full Moon, but many of the Moon's features are visible one-power. Who goes observing under such conditions? (I didn't last night, but I thought it was going to be cloudier than it really was.) Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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