Identify Flare Sat.

Chris Wyatt. (spacenaut@jaycom.net.au)
Thu, 21 Jan 1999 15:17:57 +1100

G'day all,

Last evening Jan 20 at 9:33pm local (10:33UT) while show about 100
people the evening sky & while watching an ISS pass through the NE at
about 20deg elevation at satellite rising in the NE flared for about
10secs at mag. -3, covering about 25deg of sky (& more at fainter mags.)
then completely disappeared just like an Iridium Sat., though the orbit
was somewhat off a N-S Iridium as would have set in SW on projected
course. The GSOC site data I had only had one flare for 11:32pm
(12:32UT) for Iri 8. Could anyone identify this flare producing
satellite for me please.

Regards,

Chris Wyatt, in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.

Lat. S 36d46m35s, Long. E 144d14m28s, Altitude 240m

PS I was about 3km south of my location above when I made the
observation.