A clear night, at last...

Stephmon@aol.com
Sun, 6 Jun 1999 23:02:29 EDT

Finally blessed with a clear night here in Orlando, FL. I had a chance to 
watch a fair number of objects with a 1X limiting magnitude of roughly 4.5. A 
faint haze and a street light, limited fainter observations to the eastern 
sky.

All obs are Monday June 7 UTC. 3 and 4 day old Molczan TLE's. Flash periods 
derived by counting shortwave 'pips'. [28.37612 N, 81.35404 W] Abbreviated 
Satellite Hunting output and my notes follow...

UTC		Name	ID		Elev	Azim		Mag
01:26:10	HST	20580	 20°	260° [W]	3.3
01:29:16	HST	20580	 84°	164° [S]	1.5
01:32:20	HST	20580	 20°	086° [E]	3.3

HST exhibited one brief (~1 second) flare to about -0.5 just before zenith.

UTC		Name				ID		Elev	Azim	
	Mag
01:46:37	Iridium 85 tum	25529	 29°	168° [S]	5.4
01:48:30	Iridium 85 tum	25529	 71°	088° [E]	4.2
01:51:03	Iridium 85 tum	25529	 20°	009° [N]	5.9

Iridium 85 gave one sharp flash about every 37 seconds. Variable intensity 
between flashes.

UTC		Name				ID		Elev	Azim	
	Mag
01:50:00	Cosmos 2360 r	25407	 20°	193° [S]	4.6
01:54:02	Cosmos 2360 r	25407	 82°	105° [E]	2.9
01:58:05	Cosmos 2360 r	25407	 20°	022° [N]	4.6

Cosmos 2360 r also had a period of about 37 seconds. Ten seconds of 
invisibility followed by 27 seconds of varying intensity with a weak flare 
just before returning to invisible.

UTC		Name			ID		Elev	Azim		
Mag
01:33:48	Cosmos 1145	11629	 20°	010° [N]	5.0
01:35:56	Cosmos 1145	11629	 53°	082° [E]	3.6
01:37:12	Cosmos 1145	11629	 32°	142° [SE]	4.3

Cosmos 1145 was on time and steady at predicted magnitude.

UTC		Name		ID		Elev	Azim		Mag
01:37:16	ERS-2 r	23561	 23°	139° [SE]	5.0
01:40:15	ERS-2 r	23561	 50°	074° [E]	3.9
01:43:36	ERS-2 r	23561	 20°	007° [N]	5.1

ERS-2 r was rough to follow, but also on time and steady at predicted mag.

UTC		Name				ID		Elev	Azim	
	Mag
01:44:18	Meteor 1-28 r	10114	 20°	038° [NE]	5.2
01:46:45	Meteor 1-28 r	10114	 42°	100° [E]	4.2
01:47:45	Meteor 1-28 r	10114	 35°	137° [SE]	4.4

Toughest by far at mag. 4.2, but managed to track it. Another on time and 
steady at predicted mag.
_______________________________________
Regards,
Stephen

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