It's been a while since I've even taken the time to look at a sat, but all the recent discussion about L5 got me wanting to at least try for that one. Anyway, from my location in Stanton, CA (33.8 -118.0) I waited for L5 to pass just below Polaris. Once captured and following through binocs as it passed gamma Cepheus I saw another fainter sat coming from the north. For a few seconds it appeared they were going to 'collide', but they 'missed', but not by much. Using H-A I ID it as Cosmos 1726. Another interloper I wasn't expecting happened a minute or so before I captured L5. I saw a bright light out of the corner of my eye and saw it moving slowly north towards and then through Cassiopea, fading. I got my binos on it and realized it wasn't a plane. I'm not sure of it's ID. I had no predicted Iridium flares, but I wonder if it might not have been a solar panel flare or something. But back to L5, I kept moving back and forth from 1x and binos. During one transition, it disappeared. I was hoping to catch it's eclipse entry, but I doubt it would have gone through that in the second it takes to raise my binos. I guess it did one of it's disappearing tricks. I'll have to pick one or the other next time and just stick with it. It was nice to be looking for junk...errr... satellites again. Brian -- http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism Seismic FAQ: http://www.skywise711.com/SeismicFAQ/SeismicFAQ.html Quake "predictions": http://www.skywise711.com/quakes/EQDB/index.html Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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