Thank you, Ted. I have included corrections... Date was Oct 7, not the 5th, as I initially wrote. My error (my notes show Oct 7th...!). > > > I live in Aloha, Oregon, at 45N30, 122W50, approx. > > > > On Tuesday, October 5th, I was observing the pass of > > LaCrosse-4, at 1219 UTC. As the sat nearly eclipsed Polaris, > > Lacrosse 4 was below your horizon at that time. Could you have miss-typed the > time? > Yes, mistyped. Corrected date is Oct 7th. Time is correct (5:19 AM Pacific Daylite Time = 1219UTC) > > [deleted details of obs of UNID object] > > > One more thing: LaCrosse-4 was blinking erratically and > > quickly, from what I could observe. Several times per second > > for less than a second, then nothing, then resume several > > times per second for less than a second. > That is not characteristic behaviour of any of the Lacrosses. Normally, they are > steady. I observed it about 3 hours earlier, and it was steady. David Brierley, > Russell Eberst and Peter Wakelin observed it about 8 h earlier, again steady. > > Out of thousands of Lacrosse passes observed by several observers, I found three > instances of a regular variation in brightness, all observed by Russell Eberst: > > <snip> > So, if it was indeed Lacrosse 4 that you observed, then it was a very rare, > probably unique observation; however, we need to resolve the matter of the time > discrepancy. > I was also surprised with the "quick blinks." I hv observed Lacrosses many times, and hv noticed only constant brightness...except as it moves into or out from the Earth's shadow, of course. Some objects blink, some change color from gold to blue-white, then back to gold, as tho they rotate along an axis. > > Also, can you be more precise in your description that it "nearly eclipsed > Polaris"? For example, did it pass within 0.1 deg, or 1 deg? Much, much less than 0.5 degree. To my eye, the sat and Polaris were almost one object in the sky. I wish I had a better measuring stellar stick to gauge with, in that portion of the sky. > How long did you observe the blinking object, and for what fraction of that time > did it blink? Observed for about 2 minutes total, from time of leaving the shadow to the time it passed by Polaris. The object seemed to start blinking as it passed by the constellation Casseopia. Very brief blinks for period much less than a second (perhaps, 1/3 second?)...but I could discriminate individual blinks. Too fast to count, tho. Also, this is not a flight path for commercial airliners. I'd thought about that, too, just in case. > > What was its approx minimum and maximum magnitude? Max magnitude roughly 2. Min magnitude was...darkness..., as it came out of the shadow. I watched for it as it entered the sunlight: nothing...then suddenly a brightening star that moved. > > What was its colour? Naked eye it seemed to be pale white, with a hint of very faint yellow. > > Did you observe the blinking unaided? Yes. Naked eye only. I did not use binoculars this event (normally I use 10x50). > If not, what was the magnification and > aperture of your optics? > > Can you provide more precise observing site coordinates? > Yes. 45N30, 122W52 > > Once we are certain of the identity of the blinking object and the time you > observed it, then we can try to identify the UNID object that was the subject of > your post. Many thanks for your patience! > > Ted Molczan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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