TSS visibility
Maley, Paul D. (PMALEY@GP808.jsc.nasa.gov)
Thu, 14 Mar 1996 08:20:46 -0600
Rob McNaught and Mike McCants both pose a good question as to whether valid
naked eye estimates can be made on the TSS tether due to it not being a
point source. It is a unique object. There is no doubt that the apparent
brightness varies with sky background and optics (or lack thereof).This is
clearly a challenging problem.
For my purposes I would like the observer's best estimate in order to
understand if there is any significant brightness variation occurring due to
exposure to the micrometeoroid environment. There is no need for photometric
accuracy in reporting of observations. Thanks to Rob and Mike for their
clarifying comments.
This morning 14 March at 1120 GMT we had an excellent pass from League City,
Texas (29.5378 N and 95.0868W) with the apparent tether length exceeding 2.1
degrees. Appearance is not very different from preceding days. The bottom
end of the tether still retains a simlar hook that bends back at an angle
from the velocity vector. Its apparent visual magnitude at 45 degrees
maximum elevation was about +2.5 at a phase angle of 78 deg.
Paul Maley
pmaley@gp808.jsc.nasa.gov