TDF 2 (20705) -- flashes seemed fainter, but it was lower in the sky. There may have been a phase shift at about 9:36:51.3, which was the middle of an 88-second period when I could not see it. It's about to go beyond the western horizon from here. This was from outside my apartment. I was using my peripheral vision of flashing traffic lights to count off seconds between one look and another. There's ice on my car (an infrequent occurrence here). PPAS: 90- 63 A 02-02-07 09:40:32 EC 353.2 0.3 16 22.08 +5.5->inv Back a few weeks ago I reported on seeing 14 objects one evening without magnification. Yesterday evening and this morning have been very pretty, very clear. However, in the interest of "fair and honest reporting" and presenting "both sides", I feel I should say that last night from the pedestrian bridge outside where I work, I failed to see 18 satellites. Finally, the session was saved by HST (20580, 90-037B, which was almost as bright as Rigel)! So, sometimes you just don't get very many bright ones going over (or you forget how to find them?). I think the conditions of the two evenings were otherwise pretty comparable. This Friday evening I'm scheduled to give a presentation on satellite observing techniques at a meeting of the San Antonio Astronomical Society. Okay, okay -- quell all that raucous laughter! I'm pretty sure that I will be asked embarrassing questions, but I'll do the best I can! I wonder if those five new Iridiums will have been launched and will do a nice five-in-a-row pass over San Antonio just before the meeting.... (I don't know if elements will become available in time to know.) Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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