Last night just before Mike McCants and I finished a good observing session at the BCRC site, I suggested a quick attempt to see TDF 2 (20705, a flashing geosynch), since it has a short flash period. With seconds of beginning to look with his 12x80 finder scope, Mike said, "Flash!" It was doing double flashes which were fairly bright (for its position low in the sky above the city), but they soon faded out. Here's a PPAS report (but maxima may have been brighter): 90- 63 A 02-07-21 04:39:33 EC 282.1 0.3 13 21.70 +6->inv In the past it has flashed as bright as +4, and its flash episodes have lasted as long as 40 minutes and have been approximately 20 to 25 minutes later each night. Intelsat 512 (85-087A, 16101) has been easily visible from outside my apartment for each of the last three nights, about 12-13 minutes later, for about five minutes, each night. Its episodes have been: 19 July 5:46:11 to 5:51:42 UTC 20 July 5:59:12 to 6:04:21 21 July 6:11:29 to 6:16:37 Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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
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