Hi Tony, > At Rob Matson's request, just observed ( at 18:22 UT Jan 5, > 04:52 jan 6 local time) a high pass of the ISS. Maxium > elevation 67 degrees in NW at 18:22:20UT. No glints just a > smooth brightening and fading. Maximum brightness was > -2.5 rather than Heavens-above's prediction of -0.6. Thanks, Tony, for your observation! Actually, I consider your observation a partial success, or at worst indeterminate. My model predicted a peak magnitude of -2.4 at 18:22:42 as your off-axis angle from the specular direction was 6.3 degrees. (The peak would have been rather broad -- I have magnitude -2.0 at 18:22:30, and it has only dropped to -1.3 at 18:23). In contrast, excluding specular effects, SkyMap shows the peak magnitude would have been only -0.8 at 18:22:18, or roughly 25 seconds earlier. At the time of the predicted (but broad) glint peak at 18:22:42, the non- specular predicted magnitude was -0.5. So the follow-up question for you is when do you estimate your peak brightness occurred? If you don't recall when, then ~where~ will work just as well. If the peak occurred more than 10 seconds after culmination, I'd say we'd have a success. (Stay tuned for a report from another Seesat regular on a DEFINITE success...) --Rob ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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