Intrigued by this report I was up early this morning to catch the 0715 48 deg pass over the UK. 48 deg elevation does not produce the best imaging results...especially during morning passes..... ! however ! ....the station did appear to grow in brightness at one stage as it passed through zenith and did produce a slight , if not spectacular flare ( I suspect the NY pass may have been much higher , although I havnt checked ) Anyway the culprit is the upper section of the starboard array , which , as we know is still fixed following the SARJ failure. The nadir section of that array was quite faint , but the opposite side glowed to quite an intense mini flare over about 30 seconds or so as it caught the dawn sunlight.....it was also noticeably orange in colour. I hope to have a strip of images available within the next few hours. John ----- Original Message ----- From: <Skywayinc@aol.com> To: <SeeSat-L@satobs.org> Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 11:02 PM Subject: Reports of an iridium-type flare of the ISS >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 > > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.13/1209 - Release Date: > 04/01/2008 12:05 > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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