At 23:46 11/07/06, Erkenswick, Tom M. \(JSC-DM3\) wrote: >I was wondering if someone can ID a flashing object for me. > >My location was lat 29.55 deg, long -95.36 deg. The time was 03:58 - 04:00 UTC today. The object caught my eye with a single bright flash, close to but not quite the magnitude of Jupiter, approximate location azimuth 005 deg, elevation 30 deg. I continued to look in that direction and saw two more flashes (less bright) at uneven intervals, and the object was moving in a mostly northerly direction (as best I could tell from only three data points). Between the flashes I could not see the object at all. > >I checked H-A, and the Resurs 1-4 Rocket (SPACECOM 25400, International 1998-043-G) matched the track pretty well but was predicted to show up a full 5 minutes later (04:03 - 04:07 UTC). Of course a rocket body makes sense for the flashing, but I can't imagine such a difference being due to decay given that this rocket is at 800+ km. Tom, I believe you saw one of the tumbling iridiums or some other satellite with a large flat surface. You need to be aware that HA uses the minimum magnitude so wouldnt give ordinary predictions for it using the show me visible satellites option, while it is programmed to not give iridium flare predictions for the tumblers. I have seen some and they give one a slightly wierd feeling because of their short duration. Tony Beresford Adelaide, So.Australia ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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