Bright mystery flare

From: Adam (viper6464@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Apr 07 2002 - 22:07:52 EDT

  • Next message: Adam: "Re: Bright mystery flare"

    Hi folks,
    
    I have been a silent member of this list for about
    five months now and I've really enjoyed reading some
    top quality material. I live about 35km SW of
    Melbourne, Australia and am in my final year of high
    school. My main hobby is amateur rocketry which got me
    into 'casual' satellite observing a few years ago.
    
    The satellites I have been observing of late are
    mainly formations and flashers/sparklers:
    
    Meteor 3M rkt - (27006) which is flashing naked-eye
    about twice per second at my location.
    USA 32 - (19460) which I (like others in the past)
    have seen 'sparkle' at culmintion for varying lengths
    of time on many evening passes.
    NOSS 2-2 formation on an approx mag 6 pass through
    9x63 binoculars, and the USA 160 pair a few times.
    
    I also like to keep an eye out for 'double flares' by
    Iridiums, a couple of which I have seen. I am keen to
    capture 'simultaneous' double flares on film, I have
    narrowly missed one opportunity recently due to cloud.
    
    Now that the obligatory introduction is out of the
    way, the main point of this message (sorry):
    
    On a hike this weekend a number of friends and myself
    witnessed a bright (approx mag -4) flare, lasting
    probably 8-10 seconds. Its approximate position was 65
    deg elevation in the east (between 80 deg and 100
    deg), southbound. The only candidate I have found
    (using Findsat and mccants, alldat) is Meteor 2-2
    (9661, 77002A). Is this type of satellite able to
    flare this brightly? My location was 37.4830S,
    145.8670E. Any info would be appreciated.
    
    Sorry for the slightly long-winded intro (it is
    proportional to my enjoyment of this list).
    
    Adam Shrimpton
    
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