earlier this evening, I had the old dog, suzie, in the backyard. the poor thing's been suffering from an unpleasant digestive problem. something positive resulted from this: lying on the hammock, waiting for her to do her business, I caught sight of an object just as it crossed through the swan. I later ID'd it as NOAA 17, using calsky. here is a diagram of the pass from HA: http://www.heavens-above.com/passgif.exe?T=-5&FOV=60&RA=307.120254390959&Dec=45.4099714963913&RAInc=60&DecInc=10&TimeInc=15&SatName=NOAA+17&Width=500&Height=500&STime=38573.1479189988&Lat=41.684&Lng=-87.700&Line1=1+27453U+02032A+++05220%2E29620339++%2E00000203++00000%2D0++10788%2D3+0++4831&Line2=2+27453+098%2E6585+293%2E0158+0010918+263%2E1869+096%2E8079+14%2E23690699162250 I'll first describe the pass in english and then make my first attempt to express that info in IOD format. I would appreciate any corrections and/or comments. I was looking around cygnus, working on my memorization of the names of the stars it contains. suddenly I caught sight of an object growing fairly rapidly in brightness, just as it passed next to 42 cygni; at the moment it crossed an imaginary line between deneb and sadr, I looked at my watch and got a reading of 03:32:54 UTC (9 aug 2005). by the time I looked back to the object it had grown in brightness to surpass that of deneb (mag. 1.25.) it continued to grow in brightness, at about the same rate as an iridium does when flaring to -1 or 0 mag, however it continued at this rate for much longer and therefore grew brighter. it had to have peaked near -4.5 to -5.5 mag., it was among the brightest non-iridium flares I've seen. peak brightness occurred at approximately 03:33:15 UTC as the spacecraft crossed an imagined line between 33 cygni and deneb. by 03:33:30 UTC it had faded back down to positive magnitude numbers, probably above 2.5 mag., and within 2 seconds time to either side of theta cephei it had gone dark and disappeared completely from view. I followed its course after it went dark and looked at my watch the moment it should have crossed another imagined line, this one between epsilon draconis and alderamin, at 03:33:45 UTC. ok, here goes the fun part: 27453 02 032A ???? P 20050809033243 58 25 2029547+362829 28 S+025 27453 02 032A ???? P 20050809033254 58 25 2028693+420159 28 S+008 27453 02 032A ???? P 20050809033315 58 25 2028126+525876 28 M-050 27453 02 032A ???? P 20050809033330 58 25 2029612+600163 28 S+026 27453 02 032A ???? P 20050809033334 58 25 2029203+612125 28 N+045 27453 02 032A ???? P 20050809033345 58 25 2029671+664941 28 D I have placed question marks instead of data where I do not understand the description of the columns. I am working with the IOD format description at url: http://www.satobs.org/position/IODformat.html questions: 1. how do I determine my four-digit station number (cols. 17-20)? 2. in column 66, "optical behavior code," was I incorrect to put S for steady when the brightness was increasing and decreasing? perhaps this should have been I for irregular? I wasn't certain which to put. clear skies! stephan szyman chicago IL USA 41.6840N, 87.7000W; 188m asl ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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