Last night (July 3) while setting up my scope to try to view
Tempel 1 I happened upon a slow moving flasher. It was pure
chance as I had just pointed the scope a little higher in the
sky than Spica and was about to start star hopping when I
saw a flash. I was able to follow it for about 15 minutes.
Details,
My location: -118.0W 33.8N
Time: 21:30 - 21:45 PDT (0430-0445 UT July 4)
Flash timing: two flashes/cycle, about 10s and 53s apart,
timing could be off as I counted in my head
Sky location: Above Spica in altitude, maybe a little towards
south in azimuth, roughly 40 deg altitude and
220 deg azimuth at 2140 PDT
Observation was at 40x in 6" Newt. Flashes were easily brighter
than Spica. I tried looking for it visually 1x but no luck. By
2145 PDT flashes faded in the scope to invisibility. Limiting
magnitude in the scope was approximately mag 9. Sat was not
visible between flashes.
I tried ID'ing with what TLE's I have access to but no joy.
Thanks for the help.
Brian
--
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