(The message I sent yesterday seems to have been lost. So I try again.) Recalculating the geostationary solar eclipse event of 9-APR-05 (my original calculation of a week ago used a slightly too large apparent disk of the Moon) leads to the following prediction: Intelsat 903 stationed at 34.5° West will experience an annular solar eclipse of 1:30 min duration at 0:59 UT on 9-APR-05 with an associated drop in brightness by about 2 mag (of which 1 mag happens +/- 5 minutes around annularity). I'd be interested in lightcurves of Intelsat 903 between 0:40 UT and 1:20 UT by anyone who bothers to observe. It would help to calibrate these kind of calculations. (10 minutes earlier a similar lightcurve might be obtained from Intelsat 801 stationed at 31.4° West.) Just in case anybody is interested, here's a list of all solar eclipses of the geostationary belt in 2005. Given are the date and time of maximum eclipse at the best (geostationary) longitude, the expected drop in magnitude and region of visibility. The solar eclipses are annular unless otherwise stated. 10-MAR-2005 18:17 UT 29.2°E mag 2.8; Europe, Africa 10-MAR-2005 19:48 UT 38.1°W TOTAL; Europe, Africa 8-APR-2005 18:29 UT 104.3°W TOTAL; (not visible) 9-APR-2005 0:58 UT 34.1°W mag 2; Europe, Africa, S.America, NE.America 7-MAY-2005 20:45 UT 140.55°E mag 4; W.Australia, S.E.Asia, India, W.China 8-MAY-2005 6:46 UT 87.9°W mag 1.6; Americas 4-SEP-2005 5:38 UT 152.13°W mag 2; North and Central America, Hawaii 4-SEP-2005 6:45 UT 172.4°E mag 2.5; Hawaii 3-OCT-2005 9:50 UT 28.4°E TOTAL; (not visible) 3-OCT-2005 13:31 UT 141.1°E mag 1.5; E.Asia, Australia, N.Z., Hawaii 1-NOV-2005 13:37 UT 110.72°W mag 3.3; Hawaii, North-West America 1-NOV-2005 21:48 UT 51.45°E mag 1.6; Europe, Africa, Asia I should have done this calculation two weeks earlier as the best eclipse of the year is the total one on 10-MAR (sorry!). I haven't checked for actual satellites at these theoretical positions as I want to see the outcome of the 9-APR event before deciding whether the subject is worth pursuing. Gerhard HOLTKAMP Darmstadt, Germany ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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