Last night I almost missed it, but just north of Jupiter Gravity Probe B was very bright for a few seconds. Later in the pass it brightened somewhat again, but nothing like it was in Leo. Is it somewhat curious that its appearance seems so variable? Quite a bit later I happened to see a +1 object rising below Polaris. In 10-15 seconds it dimmed a lot, and before much longer it disappeared. A Transit payload, 66-024A, 02119, seems to be a very good match. It was about six or seven magnitudes brighter than predicted. ETS 6 (94-056A, 23230) was visible with 8x42 for a while in the southeast, maybe +6 to +7 flashes. 90003 (99-503A) also was visible with 8x42, flash period about 20.9 seconds. Cosmos 2056 Rk (20433, 90-004B) and USA 160A (01-040A, 26905), the trailer, appeared to collide! BCRC: 30.315N, 97.866W, 280m. Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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