After evaluating the picture I've taken yesterday, I have some better data about the disappearance of Lacrosse 5 (2005-016A): Fading started at 19:53:54 UTC, 20-AUG-07, some 2 sec before the end of my 15 sec exposure. It must have gone on for another second before it would have been invisible to my camera (and there was no trail visible on the next picture I took half a minute later). Although 3 seconds seem to be a typical time for the fading of Lacrosse 5 there have been variations to the theme in the past. Sometimes it seems to take just one second. There have also been instances of a stepwise fading, going down 2 mag within a second and then a few seconds later another sudden drop in magnitude. We should try to report not just the time of fading but also the speed of it. This might give us some more information to play around with when investigating this behaviour. Like a good magician on stage Lacrosse 5 keeps its audience (certainly me) captivated by introducing some variations into its disappearance trick. Many thanks to the designers and operators of Lacrosse 5 (if any of you folks are listening in) for coming up with such an always exiting to watch satellite (they are going to hate me for this!). Gerhard HOLTKAMP Darmstadt, Germany 49.8822N, 8.6558 E ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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