The default mode for those L1.8 objects in the parking orbit or in ascent should be knife-edge mode, but there have always been a few that don't seem to do that and hence are brighter. Whether they permanently don't use knife-edge mode or are just caught using another mode for some operational reason (as SpaceX suggested might happen) I don't know. Visorsat must have been placed in the operational mode just after launch so it could be observed from the ground, but it would have been hard to identify such a period with any certainty. regards Richard Cole On 18/08/2020 15:12, Anthony Mallama wrote: > Before recording the magnitudes of Starlinks 1569 and 1555, I observed > 44 other satellites from the same launch. They were all about equally > bright except for 4 of them which were much more luminous than the > others. This might indicate different orientations. > > Tony Mallama _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-lReceived on Wed Aug 19 2020 - 02:42:33 UTC
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