CAUTION: Failure to use adequate and proper eye protection when viewing the sun can cause permanent eye damage. One hour ago at 14:53:46 PM local MST (21:53:46 UT) on 10 Feb 2002 I observed the ISS transiting the sun. I used an 8 inch Celestron with front mounted solar filter. The prediction was made using Rob Matson's Skymap to find a reasonable close transit, then modifying the observation lat/long until the transit became a near central event. In this case, I decided to use the latitude of a road that goes far enough east then kept adjusting the longitude. The total distance travelled was 45 miles. I was set up 10 minutes before the event and my watch alarm was set to go at 14:53 local. Just after the beeping quit, I saw the ISS clearly. It appeared to have the long axis parallel with the velocity vector with the solar arrays at the front. I wanted to videotape it but using the P23C I could only observe perhaps 1/8th of the sun...not enough. If anyone know of a way to get the full sun (perhaps a focal reducer) with the P23C, please advise. I have a few more events in the next week. Excellent prediction from Skymap. Although it appeared to be slightly east of predicted, it was within a second. Ron Lee ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Feb 10 2002 - 18:01:42 EST