Hi all -
Another good evening for shuttle watching...
At 0001 UT December 3, the STS/ISS duo appeared directly overhead in bright
twilight (the sun set 15 minutes earlier), with the leading object (presumably
the shuttle) at magnitude -1, and the ISS at magnitude -2 following by about 5
seconds.
One orbit later, at 01:36, I saw the pair again at 17 degrees elevation in the
northwest, much fainter at magnitudes +2 (shuttle) and +1 (ISS). But right
before the shuttle disappeared into eclipse, it suddenly brightened to
magnitude -2, remiained bright for about half a second, then just as suddenly
dropped back to magnitude +2. No ramp-up or ramp-down in brightness, just
off-on-off. My guess is that this was a specular reflection from an optically
flat surface (window?), which effectively scanned the 1/2-degree disk of the
sun as the sun-shuttle-observer angle changed.
Cheers, Rich Keen, Coal Creek Canyon, Colorado, USA (39.877N, 105.391W, elevation 2728m)
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Dec 02 2002 - 23:29:59 EST