Hi Thomas and List, As some list members already know, my SkyMap program will indicate satellites which are in lunar penumbra and umbra during solar eclipses (and compute their visual magnitudes as they traverse these zones). In order to see a satellite go from bright to dim (or invisible) to bright again, you need to be in one of two places: along the path of totality, or within about a thousand mile semi-circle radius of the start or end point of an eclipse. For the former, I seriously doubt anyone would take valuable time away from enjoying the spectacle of a total eclipse to attempt to see a satellite in another part of the sky. But the latter case is a great opportunity since you can be in full darkness at your site (not the twilight of a total eclipse), greatly expanding the list of candidate satellites in reach of your eyes, binoculars or telescopes. For the June eclipse through Africa (was that last year or the year before?) I found dozens of satellites that would have been visible dipping at least 3 visual magnitudes. To my knowledge, no one has yet attempted to observe such an event. Cheers, Rob ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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