Jonathan T Wojack wrote:
> > As much as I like Heavens-Above, I would rule against this
> > option for two reasons: first, the site provides ONLY the
> > flare peak time with no indication of the start time of the flare
> > which is equally as important (if not more)
>
Jonathan,
> What? The flare starts a few seconds before its peak brightness, and
> it
Care to define "a few seconds"? I checked my list of predicted
flares over the next three weeks created just last night and I see times
ranging from 0 to 10 seconds before peak.
> subsides to dim visibility a few seconds later (if you care to, you
> can
> track an Iridium flare naked-eye in light-polluted skies for many
> seconds, even over a minute. I've done it.). They can start rolling
> the
This is something which I have also done as it is not a big deal
to track an Iridium flare for a minute but this has nothing to do with
the original point being made.
> tape ten to twenty seconds before the peak - and they'll get the whole
> flare.
Personally I would like to know whether a given flare will start
"x" seconds before the peak or "x+10" seconds before the peak,
especially if the technology is there to do so. The observation of
satellites is one of the few aspects of (amateur) astronomy where a few
seconds can make or break an observing session. Yes, you can play it
safe and start the tape 10 minutes earlier, for that matter, but then we
turn aspects of this hobby which can be predicted with very good
accuracy from a science to almost an art.
Another point I would like to make is that it is very easy to
impress upon the intended audience for whom such a tape is desired that
these events can be predicted down to the last second. In fact, using
SKYMAP as an example, estimates are provided to a tenth-of-a-second. In
my opinion, this would add further value to any sort of "documentary"
the Australian television folks may be looking to produce.
Anthony.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Aug 11 2001 - 11:03:50 PDT