Last evening EDT (early 13th July UTC) we saw a slow-moving satellite which was displaying brief, intense, flashes on the order of every second or so. It was invisible in 10x50 and 7x50 binoculars between glints, and trying to ID it using Skymap and alldat.tle was unsuccessful. The particulars: 2002 July 13/02:33.5 (+/-0.1 min) UTC Location: 40.1075 N, 74.2312 W, +24m Elev/azim (+/- 0.5 deg): 57/150 moving slowly to the left RA/dec (J2000, +/- 0.5 deg): 18:04.1 / +10.3 deg Peak flash brightness: approx 4 to 4-1/2 magnitude (i.e. brighter than 71 Oph's 4.64) This was definitely not an aircraft (we've seen all too many of those) and any help IDing this will be much appreciated. Incidentally, earlier (2002 July 13/02:22.5 UTC) we saw a surprisingly bright pass of the new NOAA 17 (27453=02-032A) satellite; it was brighter than alpha Her (mag=2.78); it wasn't flaring but was just nice and bright throughout its near-zenith pass. Clear and dark skies! Ed and Darlene Light Lakewood, NJ, USA N 40.1075, W 074.2312 (GPS:WGS-84), Hgt +24 m (80 ft) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Sat Jul 13 2002 - 09:52:49 EDT