This evening Progress M1-4 led the ISS by about 4 minutes, rising in the west and entering eclipse in the NW at about a 45 deg elevation. I acquired the Progress at 22:31 UTC about 5 deg below Altair at about a 4.5 mag. About a minute later at 22:31:58 it was visible at 1x. It's brightness peaked at 22:32:06 at a -1 mag - clearly brighter than Vega. I acquired the ISS at 22:34:40 UTC, about 7 deg below Altair in the west. It was about -2.5 mag - brighter than I have ever seen it below 20 deg elevation. It dimmed to about a +0.5 by 22:35:30. It seemed more brown-red than the light blue color in previous passes. I was expecting it to flare after it passed beta-Cyg just as that Progress had done but it was steaty at +0.5. As it entered eclipse it turned a deep red. There are visible passes tomorrow and Thursday here but the weather probably will not cooperate. Cheers, Don Gardner 39.1799 N, 76.8406 W, 100m ASL http://hometown.aol.com/mir16609/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Dec 12 2000 - 15:52:58 PST