Hello, my name is Paul Grace, I am a new subscriber to your list. I'm an amateur science buff, and have a rough knowledge of the night sky. My coefficient of geek is: I "predict" daytime iridium flares at the office parking lot to fellow employees for the amusement value. I have been referred to this site as a resource that might be able to answer my question-to wit: I view the sky from a very unpolluted site, at 123.545W 38.956N UTC-8 Sunday Morning, 2008 Nov 30, 00:15 PST I was observing the sky with no particular aim, and I noticed a bright flashing light about magnitude 3-4 on, for about 0.5 seconds, off a few seconds (5-6?), looking much like a very high altitude aircraft strobe. The light cycled like this several times before I noticed that it was not moving against the stars. The flashes were somewhat irregular, sometimes missing a flash, sometimes the flash was down near mag 7, only visible through my binoculars. This continued for perhaps 15 minutes, and then it stopped. During the 15 minute period, I noticed the object was drifting slowly eastward against the stars, and it seemed to be at the ecliptic, although I didn't have my telescope available to determine its accurate position. After, I went back inside I estimated its location slightly above the ecliptic at about RA 3h 18m Dec +01.78 best guess. (Azm 211, Alt 48.5) I think I was observing a flare, from a Geostationary satellite. Because it was so bright, I think it must be a tumbling 3-axis sat, a spinner wouldn't have large reflecting surfaces. A LEO sat would not likely be illuminated by the sun near midnight. Is there a way to determine what bird it might be? Is there a tumbling 3-axis GEO satellite known in that region? (what would this be, 154 west longitude?) I thought it was pretty cool, my wife was impressed too! Any comments would be appreciated, I'm a newbie here, so if this isn't the proper forum, please be gentle... Paul Grace www.lookoutranch.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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