I was watching the same pass - location about one degree further north and one degree to the west of Marco - there was no manifestation of a flare from here. The ISS was steady at mag 1 until about 25 degrees elevation and then increased over a period of about one minute to mag -1 before fading into eclipse. There was some haze so my magnitude estimates could be slightly low due to a lack of reference stars. Bob Christy Lincoln, UK 53.2233 deg North 0.6004 deg West Height 59m > -----Original Message----- > From: Marco Langbroek [mailto:marco.langbroek@wanadoo.nl] > Sent: 15 April 2007 21:17 > To: satelliet lijst (SeeSat) > Subject: Observed odd ISS flare > > Hi all, > > Just a few minutes ago I saw ISS giving off a true flare. > I've never seen it > doing this before. > > It was low in the west crossing into Gemini at mag. -2, when > suddenly (as if a > switch was turned) it flared up by at least 1.5 to 2 extra > magnitudes, for maybe > a second or 2-3, and then back to its previous brightness again. Very > conspicuous. I also had the impression of an orange colour > but that could be due > to the low elevation. Never seen this before with ISS. Time > was approximately > 21:07:15 UTC (Apr 15). Anyone seen this before? > > - Marco > > PS: at the earlier 19:34 UTC pass I was watching and > photographing ISS in > twilight too. > My new neighbours were in the courtyard, because of the unusual high > temperatures. They asked me what I was doing and I explained. > At first they didn't want to believe me, thinking it was an > airplane when I > pointed them to the ISS passing. On second thought, they > realized I had > predicted it would pass, so probably I was right... > Next I could see a look in their eyes signalling probably > something like: > "Right. Somewhat a nutter, but not dangerous..." ;-) > > > ----- > Dr Marco Langbroek - SatTrackCam Leiden, Cospar 4353 > Leiden, the Netherlands. 52.15412 N, 4.49081 E (WGS84), +0 m ASL > > SatTrackCam: http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek/satcam.html > Station (b)log: http://sattrackcam.blogspot.com > Atom RSS: http://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/atom.xml > e-mail: sattrackcam@wanadoo.nl > ----- > > -------------------------------------------------------------- > ----------- > Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, > SeeSat-L archive: > http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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