I received two reports concerning a recent ISS pass over the New York Metropolitan area which I thought I'd share with everyone on SeeSat-L. This was a pass that occurred before sunrise this past Thursday morning. Both observers saw the ISS flare to incredible brilliance. The first observer described it as becoming "MUCH brighter than Venus" while the second estimated the peak magnitude at "minus 6th magnitude." I myself did not see this unusual pass, as I was busy attentively watching the "inside the eyelid show" at that particular hour. :/ -- joe rao ---------------------------------------------------------------- What a wonderful clear morning- right on schedule, the ISS made a nice and brilliant pass over me beginning at 5:44 AM in the SSW. Appearing nearly a third of the way up in the sky (the Earth's shadow was still relatively high with the late sunrises now) the ISS eventually flared for 3-4 seconds MUCH brighter than Venus as the ISS passed more than 2/3 up in the SE, continuing and reddening as it crept slowly to the ENE. The ISS, Venus, the lovely crescent moon and the skies of spring made it worth getting delayed on the way to work. I left about 10 minutes later, and got where I needed to be just in time. That sure beats another cloudy morning, right? Sam Storch Lindenhurst, N.Y. LISkies@aol.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------ Yesterday morning, Jan 3, I decided since I was already up, to see what was expected to be a great pass of the ISS at 5:45 AM with the ISS moving SW to NE. The sky was very clear with the crescent moon, Venus, Saturn and many stars visible. The temperature was about 14 deg, but I was dressed for it. The ISS came out of the earth's shadow in the SSW about one third the way up and soon became comparable in brightness to Saturn. Then as it approached its greatest elevation in the south it grew in brightness like an iridium flare outshining even Venus by about two magnitudes for maybe 10 seconds ( i.e. brighter than Venus for about 10 secs but about two mag brighter for the middle few secs). Under very clear skies this unexpected brilliance was really amazing. It truly looked like an iridium flare except that before and after the greatest brilliancy it was still easily visible at normal brightness levels. Too bad most of the usual skywatchers probably missed it because of the early viewing time. Anyway, I have never seen the ISS get that bright - about a momentary minus 6th magnitude and a sustained brightness greater than Jupiter and even Venus which I visually compared it to several times when it was so bright. Thought you'd be interested in hearing about this. Larry Gerstman Long Beach, N.Y. Larry88KC@netscape.com **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape. http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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