I was observing GSTAR 3 (19483, 88-81A), which Steve LaLumondiere reported flashing recently. It was just to the west of northern head of Hydra, and a couple of the flashes seemed in my binoculars that they might have been as bright as +3. I was counting down to its next expected flash, and my cousin's husband was looking one-power at that general vicinity. A few seconds early he reported a bright flash that he said was like a "flash bulb". It was within the northern head of Hydra -- the wrong location for GSTAR 3. We both watched there a while, and then I saw a bright flash -- above and a bit east of the northern head of Hydra! We watched at least four or five minutes longer and saw no more one-power flashes. Checking this out later, the best candidate seems to be COMETS (25175, 98-11A). I failed to click when my "cousin-in-law" reported his flash, and I forgot if it was to be at 2:24.50 or 4:49:00 from the previous GSTAR 3 flash, so I don't know how much time elapsed between the two UNID flashes. But here are data on the second flash (which was 7:20.71 after the last GSTAR 3 flash that I timed): 4:19:49.2 March 12 UTC, APPROX. RA 09h 00m, Dec +6.5 (2000). Observing location was 30.2934N, 97.8959W, 180 m. My cousin-in-law and I saw a daylight Iridium 4 flare at 00:18:04, and both of us and my cousin saw a beautiful predicted -7 flare from Iridium 16 at 2:14:27 (Iridflar predictions). Both Iridiums 14 and 11 made very nice flashing appearances. I still have an UNID flare, but I suspect TOPEX Rk, which has been known to flare brightly from time to time. A binocular UNID was leading USA 86 (or vice versa). Saw USA 32, Lacrosse 3, USA 144, and NOSS 2-3 trio also. And some others, several one-power. One of those good nights with some good passes.... 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://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Mar 12 2000 - 03:09:37 PST