Brian, David Dunham of the group operating MESSENGER reported on MPML that the spacecraft is turning out to be much fainter than expected. Probably closer to mag 17. Hopefully some of our CCD wielding friends have managed to capture it. Thanks, Alex On Tue, 03 Aug 2004 23:57:02 -0700, Skywise <skywise711@earthlink.net> wrote: > I attemped to observe the Messenger spacecraft this evening from my > well lit skies of Orange Country, CA but had no luck. > > Using the Horizons ephemeris generator and sky chart software I > star hopped to the right area and observed through my 6 inch > newtonian at 30x. Limiting magnitude was close to 11 until the > moon rose high enough to start lighting up the moisture in the > air. > > Using Ted's formula I had a predicted magnitude of 10.3 but I was > unable to see it. > > The effort was still fun. > > Brian > -118.0 33.8 > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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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