> > How to decode these often seen professional observation > reports (a lot of numbers) ? Mike Waterman, David Brierley and other UK observers use a format with a descriptive heading (RA in hours, minutes+decimals, Dec in degress+decimals or degrees, minutes+decimals, Epoch 2000.0?) YATELEY(WATERMAN)ENGLAND IntlId SiteYYMMDDHHMMSSss Sss TCHHMMmm DDddd Ddd E MMm 99057GB211500050121190931 020 13155279 +2639 007 5 +65 IntlId SiteYYMMDDHHMMSSss Sss TCHHMMmm DDMMm Mm E 7711201267500071823101708 010 12165600 +15236 15 5 Russell Eberst uses: 2420 0008 0.211 1204 05 9903702 213010.21 204336+303212 7.0 7.0 0 S which I (empirically) decode as: Site YYMM xxxxx xxxx DD IntlId HHMMSS.ss HHMMSS DDMMSS M.m M.m x F (RA,Dec 1950.0) Rainer Kracht often shows observations in the analysis format for ftp://ftp.fc.net/pub/users/mikem/elcor.zip or ftp://ftp.fc.net/pub/users/mikem/fitelem.zip Most others use the IOD format produced and described by: ftp://ftp.fc.net/pub/users/mikem/obsentry.zip > How to estimate IRIDIUM brightnesses without anything > for comparisation? > I haven't used it yet, but Mike Waterman mentioned a method in http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/Mar-2000/0220.html (http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/Mar-2000/0250.html) If I think and compute correctly, a highly reflective ball with diameter d, held with its surface at a distance D from the eye, at angle v from the object observed, would increase its magnitude by 5 * Log10 ( Di/d ) - 2.5 * Log10 ( cos ( 90 - v/2 ) ) E.g. a 4 cm ball at arms length (54 cm) from the eye, 90 degrees from the object watched as reflection, is 6.03 magnitudes fainter. Near 180 degrees (impractical for comparisons) this is 5.65 magnitudes. This is also the effect of a watching straight through negative lens with -2 cm focal length (or a 2 cm positive lens held at 58 cm). -- b_gimle@algonet.se (home) http://www.algonet.se/~b_gimle -- -- COSPAR 5919, MALMA, 59.2576 N, 18.6172 E, 23 m -- -- COSPAR 5918, HAMMARBY, 59.2985 N, 18.1045 E, 44 m -- -- SeeSat-L / Visual Satellite Observer Home Page found at -- -- http://www2.satellite.eu.org/satintro.html -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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